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"" ' ENTENNIAL HISTORY 



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OF INDIANA 



HUBERT M. SKINNER 




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Atkinson. Mentzer & Company 



CENTENNIAL HISTORY 
OF INDIANA 

For Sckools and for Teackers Institutes 

BY 

HUBERT M. SKINNER, PH. D. 

FORMER ASST SUPERINTE>iDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 

FOUNDER OF 

LINCOLN DAY OBSERVANCES BY SCHOOLS AND CLUBS 



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ATKINSON, MENTZER ^ COMPANY 



Boston N«w York Chicago Atlanta 



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Copyright 1916 by 
Atkinson, Mentzer & Co. 




KH -8 1916 
g)CiA427575 



INTRODUCTION 



That the year 1916, the Centennial of Indiana's Statehood, 
should awaken the deepest popular interest and be marked with 
a pageantry unprecedented in any similar case is not surprising, 
in view of the history of the State and its people. 

Indiana was the eighteenth State to be organized and to 
enter the American Union. Of the four dozen States compos- 
ing the great Republic, Indiana is only the thirty-eighth in 
area, being the smallest of all the "Western States" of the old 
classification; but in population, according to the Federal cen- 
sus of 1910, it is surpassed by only seven States in all the Union. 

The people of Indiana are chiefly of the old Colonial 
stock, the European immigration never having been excessive; 
and the boundaries of the State are for the most part highly 
artificial, consisting of straight and imaginary lines. Yet in its 
history and development Indiana has manifested a character of 
its own, which is altogether remarkable among the common- 
wealths; and while the people are intensely loyal to the Union 
as a whole, they cherish a deep love for their State, and take 
great pride in it. 

The travel of the world and the migrations of people are 
far more generally upon east-and-west lines than upon north- 
and-south lines; and a majority of the States naturally have 
their longest lines running east and west, or approach more 
nearly the figure of a square, or are very irregular in shape. 
Indiana and Illinois are among the exceptions to this general 
rule, for their greatest extension lies north and south, directly 
across the lines of popular movement. This is fortunate in 
both cases; for the northern and southern parts of these States 



4 INTRODUCTION 

were settled by Americans of decidedly different types, and 
the result of the unnatural arrangement of the boundaries has 
been a happy blending of these types into one, which is su- 
perior to either of them. The southern counties were the first 
to be peopled, and their early settlers came generally from the 
States to the east and southeast The northern counties drew 
their early population chiefly from New England and the 
Middle Atlantic States. The northwest corner of Indiana, 
although so near to the great city of Chicago, is the newest part 
of the State, but within recent decades has been the scene of 
rapid development. 

The history of Indiana extends far back of the period of 
Statehood, for Indiana was a Territory before it became a 
State, and it formed a part of important Colonial possessions 
of European powers before it became a Territory of the Re- 
public. In the Territorial period, which included the years of 
the war of 1812, Indiana was the scene of a number of interest- 
ing events. Likewise certain movements of Revolutionary 
history, which have an importance altogether out of proportion 
to the number of men engaged in them, relate to Indiana. And 
far back of the Revolution, in the Colonial period of French 
and British dominion, Indiana was the scene of important and 
highly romantic exploits which awaken interest and admira- 
tion. 

It is well for us, then, to review at this time the entire his- 
tory of Indiana, from its remote beginnings, and to trace the 
rise of a great State from the earliest exploration of the wilder- 
ness in which it orginated. 

The story of Indiana is naturally divided into six periods. 

First, there were all the long ages before the White man 
ever penetrated the wilderness which was included within our 
present boundaries. 

Then came the time of the French explorers, missionaries, 
and traders from Canada, who were subjects of the king of 
France, and who were determined, by brave and bold exer- 
tions, to extend his dominions in the heart of America, and to 



INTRODUCTION S 

establish the Christian faith wherever they might go. Follow- 
ing this came a long war between the British and the French; 
and at its close, the region included within our State lines, and 
a vast territory lying beyond them, came into the possession of 
the British. 

When the British Colonies of the East broke away from 
the British Empire, declared themselves free and independent 
States, and determined to govern themselves, the small White 
population that was then within our boundaries joined in the 
Revolution. 

At the close of the war, when American independence was 
achieved, the western land of which Indiana forms a part was 
formed temporarily into a great dependency of the new Union, 
and called the Northwest Territory. A large part of this, in 
the year 1800, was formed into the Territory of Indiana. 
Later, this was much reduced in size; and in 1816 it was 
formed into a State, and admitted into the Union on an equal 
footing with the seventeen older States of that time. 

We have thus to consider, in order, the Aboriginal period, 
the period of French exploration and colonization, the British 
Colonial period, the Revolutionary period, the Territorial 
period, and the period of Statehood. So great were the changes 
wrought through these successive periods of time, that they 
possess an exceedingly varied interest for the student of history. 



CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION 



CHAPTER I 



CHAPTER II. 
CHAPTER III. 
CHAPTER IV. 
CHAPTER V. 



CHAPTER VI. 



CHAPTER VII. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
CHAPTER IX. 
CHAPTER X. 



CHAPTER XI. 
CHAPTER XII. 
CHAPTER XIII. 
CHAPTER XIV. 
CHAPTER XV. 



CHAPTER 


XVI. 


CHAPTER 


XVII. 


CHAPTER 


XVIII. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


CHAPTER 


XX. 


CHAPTER 


XXI. 


CHAPTER 


XXII. 


CHAPTER 


XXIII, 



The Aboriginal Period ( -1679) 

Indiana in Ancient Days 7 

The French Colonial Period (1679-1763) 

The First Advent of White Men 11 

Red Men and White on the Wabash 15 

Old French Life in Indiana 19 

The End of the French Regime 24 

The British Colonial Period (1763-1777) 

British Rule in Indiana 26 

The Revolutionary Period (1777-1783) 

Earliest Movements in Indiana 28 

The Revolution at Vincennes 31 

The Surrender of Fort Sackville 35 

Last Scenes of the War in Indiana 38 

The Territorial Period (i 784-1 800) 

A Part of the Northwest Territory 42 

The Territory of Indiana 45 

The Battle of Tippecanoe 49 

Indiana Territory in the War of 1812 55 

Last Years of Indiana Territory 60 

The Period of Statehood (1816-1916) 

The First Quarter-Century of the State 63 

The Decade of the "Forties" 70 

Indiana in the Mexican War 75 

The Decade of the "Fifties" 78 

Indiana in the War of Secession • • . . 80 

Brief Summary of Indiana's Part in the War 86 

The Last Half-Century 91 

Some Indiana Writers 96 



THE SONG OF THE OLD SAC TRAIL 

By HUBERT M. SKINNER 

Illustrated by Ludvig Holberg 

The Old Sac Trail, trod first by the Indians, later by the explore/s, and in early dayf the pathway of impor- 
tant military expeditions, followed the narrow strip ol lantl between Lake Michigan and the swamp of the Kan- 
kakee, now covered by a network o{ railway lines, the greatest highway o£ commerce in the \\ox\d. —i:.iiitor. 

My course I take by marge of lake or river gently flowing, 

Where footsteps light in rapid flight inay find their surest going. 

I hold my way through forests gray, beneath their rustling arches, 
And on I pass through prairie grass, to guide the silent marches. 

In single file, through mile on mile, the braves their chieftains follow; 

By night or day they keep the way, they wind round hill and hollow. 
From sun to sun I guide them on, the men of bow and quiver. 

And on I pass through prairie grass, as flows the living river. 

Where waters gleam, I ford the stream; and where the land is broken, 
My way I grope down rocky slope, by many a friendly token. 

The shrubs and vines, the oaks and pines, the lonely firs and larches 

I leave, and pass through prairie grass, to guide the silent marches. 

To charts unknown, in books unshown, I am no lane or byway. 

Complete with me from sea to sea the continental highway! 
J guide the quest from East to West, — From West to East deliver, 

For on I pass through prairie grass, as flows the living river. 

The bivouac leaves embers black amid the fern and clover, 

And prints of feet the searchers greet, to tell of journeys over. 

The sun beats hot. I reckon not how sear its splendor parches. 
I onward pass through prairie grass, to guide the silent marches. 

The Red Man's God prepared the sod, and to his children gave it. 

His wrath is shown in every zone against the men who brave it. 
Then righteous be, who follow mc, and praise the Heavenly Giver, 

While on 1 pass through prairie grass, as flows the living river. 



THE ABORIGINAL PERIOD 

—1679 

CHAPTER I 
INDIANA IN ANCIENT DAYS 

At the time when the present limits of Indiana were first 
entered by White men, more than two and one-third centuries 
ago, there were no Indians living here. This large tract of 
country, greater in area than the whole of Scotland or of Ire- 
land, and so important now and so dear to us, was without 
human inhabitants. Animal and vegetable life was abundant. 
Here was, indeed, a hunters' paradise, it would seem; but the 
hunters were wanting. 

So remarkable a fact requires explanation. Why was the 
area of Indiana then an untenanted solitude? 

The number of Indians existing upon this continent a few 
centuries ago is very greatly exaggerated in the minds of most 
people. Careful students of historical problems relating to 
the Indians are confident that, three centuries ago, the entire 
Indian population within the present boundaries of the Ignited 
States was not much more than the number of people in the 
city of Indianapolis today. That is to say, the Indians num- 
bered only about three hundred thousand. The Indian popu- 
lation of the United States has never grown rapidly, but there 
are probably more Indians in our country at this time than 
there were in the time of Columbus. 

With so small a body of inhabitants in so vast an expanse 



g ABORIGINAL INDIANA 

of territory, there must necessarily have been large tracts 
wholly unoccupied. The Indians were left to choose the dis- 
tricts which suited them best. So attached were they to certain 
regions especially favored by nature, that rival tribes often 
fought for the possession of these, although there was no need 
for crowding together. The Indians loved the valleys of the 
Hudson, the Mohawk, and the Susquehanna, in the East. They 
loved the prairies of Iowa and of Illinois, the dalles of Wiscon- 
sin, the picturesque shores of Michigan. Even the cold winters 
of the North could not chill their love for Minnesota, nor the 
hot summers burn out their love for scenes in the sunny South. 
That they had not yet developed a love for what is now Indi- 
ana is easily understood when we consider how different this 
region was, in centuries gone, from the Indiana of today. 

Very much of our State was then covered with swamp or 
with heavy timber. These presented appalling obstacles to our 
own pioneers of the last century. Beautiful prairies there 
were, scattered here and there; but these were usually small, 
and seemed hopelessly separated by scarcely-passable marshes, 
almost-shoreless rivers, and thick woods. The very air was 
poisoned with the malaria which arises from stagnant water 
and decaying vegetation. While in other young States the 
pioneers found virgin fields awaiting them, the earliest farmers 
of Indiana had to make the fields, by felling timber and up- 
rooting the underbrush. They had to make even the atmos- 
phere, by draining the swamps. They had to build their roads, 
often amid discouraging difficulties. 

The picture drawn of early Indiana by writers of the past 
may seem very uncomplimentary, but their truth is confirmed 
in many ways ; and, really, could there be higher praise of any 
people than to say that their indomitable spirit transformed 
into the great, wealthy, and beautiful State of today a region 
which did not appeal even to the savages of old? It is vastly 
to the credit of the people of Holland that they won their 
lands from the sea ; and to the people of Indiana, that they won 
their lands from the swamp and thick forest and tanglewood. 



INDIANA IN ANCIENT DAYS 9 

It would not be true to say that the area included in Indiana 
had, never been inhabited in any part before the first White 
man came. It would seem that Piankeshaw, Pottawattamie, 
and possibly Ouiatenon (We-aw-te-non') Indians had so- 
journed upon both banks of the Wabash in previous periods, 
though it is not clear that any considerable part of our area had 
been the fixed home of any important Indian communities for 
any long period, unless in centuries very remote. 

A generation ago there was much discussion of the Mound 
Builders, a supposed or assumed race of people who erected 
strange effigies, as they are called (mounds representing in a 
distorted way the outlines of animals and sometimes of men), 
and other earthworks, such as are found in Wisconsin, in Ohio, 
and elsewhere. It was assumed that the Mound Builders were 
an ancient people, from whom the Indians were not descended. 
A later study of the problem presented by such mounds gives 
evidence that their antiquity has been very greatly exaggerated, 
and that they were the work of the Indians themselves. 

Among the most interesting relics of ancient days in Indi- 
ana are the trails which led through the prairie regions. 
Among these the Old Sac (or Sauk) Trail must have been of 
great importance, even v/hen there were no inhabitants along 
its course, since it formed the great highway between the East 
and the West along the height of land between Lake Michigan 
and the Kankakee swamp. It had branches at both ends of 
this narrow strip lying between the impassable Lake, which 
extends so far to the northward, and the almost equally-im- 
passable succession of swamps, which seemed unending in their 
stretch to the southward. 

The trail had been in use, doubtless, for centuries, and had 
been improved by succeeding generations of travelers on foot 
(for the Indians in old time had no horses or oxen), so as to 
avoid unnecessary difficulties, by shortening the line, by cross- 
ing streams at the most favorable places, by touching at clear 
springs of water, by keeping in sight of needed timber, by 
escaping steep ascents or muddy bottoms. In the perfection of 



lo ABORIGINAL INDIANA 

their famous trails, the Indians showed themselves far superior 
to the people of Morocco at the present time; for while there 
is constant travel in that land between the coast and the capital, 
travelers tell us that there are neither roads nor trails to guide 
them through the tall grass, and that each sojourner makes a 
new path of his own, with constant loss of time which the di- 
rectness of a well-planned trail might save. 

There is a disposition now to mark the lines of the old 
Indian trails of Indiana, and this might well be done in all the 
counties through which they pass. Some of these have been 
preserved in the roads of the present day, which happily fol- 
lowed the path pursued by the Indians of ancient days, in dis- 
regard of section lines drawn by the surveyors of the last cen- 
tury. Cities and towns, however, have been laid out generally 
with reference to section lines ; and where the line of an ancient 
trail passes over their sites, it is not likely to correspond to 
streets or alleys. Occasionally the line of an old trail has caused 
an irregular street or avenue in an Indiana city or town, and 
will explain this if the facts concerning it are known. 

In view of the very great importance of certain famous 
Indian trails, and the practical wisdom of ages exercised in 
determining their course, it is disappointing to learn that they 
were merely narrow foot-paths, a very few feet wide, and of 
seeming insignificance. Yet to "lose the trail" was often a 
very serious, if not fatal, calamity to the traveler fleeing for his 
life, or to those who were awaiting important news to be 
brought by the fleetest messengers. 

Along the trail the Red Men were wont to pass generally 
in single file, with a swinging gait, carrying their weight 
chiefly upon their toes, and placing one foot almost directly in 
front of the other, in their flight. By this means the small 
number of persons infrequently passing would keep the narrow 
trail worn as much as possible, so that it would not be lost by 
the growth of grass in the intervals between the marches. 



THE l-RESCIl COI.OM.lf. PERIOD ii 

THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD 

1679—17^3 

CHAPTER II 
THE FIRST ADVENT OF WHITE MEN 

On a dreary December day of 1679, the present northern 
boundary of Indiana was crossed by a company of French 
explorers traveling southward in boats on the St. Joseph river. 
The men were thirty-three in number. They had eight canoes, 
and they carried with them many heavy articles, such as axes, 
guns, a blacksmith's anvil and bellows, carpenters' tools, camp 
appurtenances, and bundles of merchandise to trade with In- 
dians for furs or for food and service. 

So far as we know, this was the first entrance of White 
within our boundaries ; and for various reasons the event is one 
of great interest. 

The Sieur (nobleman) Robert Cavelier de la Salle, whose 
exploits were continental and whose fame is international, was 
commander of the expedition. With him were the Sieurs 
Tonty and LaMotte, and the priests Father Louis Hennepin, 
Father Zenobe Membre, and Father Ribourde. The three 
sieurs and the three priests were all men of learning and of 
ability. Tonty (or Tonti) was of Italian ancestry, as his name 
indicates; but, like all the others, was ardently devoted to the 
service of the French King. 

The principal object of the expedition was to find some 
connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. The 
Spaniard De Soto had discovered and crossed the Mississippi, 
near the site of Memphis, Tenn., away back in 1541 ; but he 
had not followed the course of the river either up or down. 

The French, now long settled in eastern Canada, had dis- 
covered and explored the Great Lakes. It might be supposed 
by them that the great river flowed out of one of these and into 
the Gulf of Mexico, which the Spanish had traversed even be- 



12 THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD 

fore De Soto's discovery; but neither the origin nor the outlet 
of the Mississippi was yet positively known. 

The explorer Louis Joliet and the missionary Father 
Jacques (James) Marquette (both Frenchmen) had reached 
the Mississippi in 1673, six years before this expedition of 
La Salle, by paddling up the Fox River from Green Bay, then 
carrying their boats over a short portage (carrying place) to 
the Wisconsin River, and descending that stream ; and they had 
descended the Mississippi itself to the mouth of the Arkansas. 
Returning northward in the same year, they had turned into 
the Illinois river, and later into the Des Plaines, which brought 
them to the vicinity of the Chicago River; and by another 
short portage along what is now Madison Street in Chicago, 
they had again reached Lake Michigan. 

La Salle was not satisfied with either of these inconvenient 
portages. He had now passed entirely up to the south end of 
Lake Michigan, coasting along its western shore; had skirted 
all the south end of the lake; had turned into the river St. 
Joseph, and was following up its course, against the current, 
for he found the river flowing northward. The result was 
disappointing. It was plain that the great river did not have 
its source in Lake Michigan. 

La Salle's company reached the site of South Bend, and 
the leading men of the company climbed a hill to survey the 
surrounding region. A few miles to the southward they beheld 
the sluggish Kankakee; and amid the falling snow the party 
carried, with difficulty, all their boats and supplies over this 
new-found portage, and embarked upon that river. 

No living thing was in sight. The scene was inexpressibly 
dreary. 

La Salle had spent the month of November at the mouth of 
the St. Joseph, building a small stockade which he called Fort 
Miamis, (me-am'-ee) and waiting for reinforcements; and 
when he passed up the river (beginning on the 3rd of Decem- 
ber), he had left four of his thirty-seven men at this post. 

The cheerless journey down the Kankakee seems not to 



THE FIRST ADVENT OF irillTE MEN 13 

have been relieved by any striking incident. For a long dis- 
tance the river was so completely hemmed in by a thick 
growth of brush that there was nothing of scenery to interest 
the explorers. Indeed, the trees and brush so encroached upon 
the narrow stream that often there was scarcely room for two 
of the canoes to pass side by side, and they went in single file. 
A level, marshy plain extended for miles on either side. The 
historian of the expedition tells us that the party were 
hungry for game, w^hich was not often encountered, though 
they did kill two small deer and a few wild fowls. They be- 
came very hungry, and were overjoyed at length to find near 
the stream, mired fast in the mud, a huge buffalo. The crea- 
ture was so large that it required the united strength of twelve 
men to drag its carcass with ropes from the mire. They loaded 
it upon one of their canoes, and enjoyed many a feast from its 
fat steaks. 

Such was the first recorded entry of White men within our 
borders. 

The advent of the Pilgrims of Plymonth, depicted by 
artists and sung by poets, is dear to the heart of Massachusetts. 
No less animated by lofty purpose were the company of La 
Salle, and no less significant in history was their advent here. 
The full history of La Salle's greatj life work is animating to 
the youths of America, and his story makes a most vivid im- 
pression upon those who are familiar with parts of the route 
over which he passed. Accounts of his arduous toils and mar- 
velous adventures must be sought in other books. To residents 
of St. Joseph, Laporte, Starke, Porter, Lake, Jasper, and New- 
ton counties, some of the scenes of his voyages and marches are 
familiar, and these serve to keep in mind the lesson of his great 
life w^ork. 

Early in March of the following year, 1680, La Salle and 
three White companions appeared at the mouth of the Calu- 
met, having descended that stream to the shore of Lake Michi- 
gan, in a strenuous journey back to Canada. With them was a 
faithful Indian guide, a Mohican, who had accompanied them 



14 THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD 

from the time they left Fort Miamis in the previous year. 
They ran along the sandy shore until, at the close of the 24th 
day of the month, they arrived at the gate of the same fort. 

La Salle's company had passed the winter in a fort which 
they had built on Peoria Lake, in the country of the Illinois 
Indians; and their leader, filled with anxiety at the failure of 
expected aids to follow him, determined to return to Ft. 
Frontenac (now Kingston), in Canada. He did not tarry at 
Ft. Miamis on his toilsome way. 

Again, on the 4th of November of the same year, 1680, 
he appeared at the latter post, on a second journey to the 
Illinois country, and immediately passed up the St. Joseph 
and down the Kankakee, as before. With him were six French- 
men and an Indian. 

Again, on the sixth of the following January, in 1681, while 
a great comet was blazing in the sky. La Salle sought Ft. 
Miamis, but he did not ascend the Kankakee. He went by 
land, probably following the Old Sac Trail. 

In the following year, 1682, he brought a company of 
White men and Indians to the Chicago River, passed with 
them on the present line of Madison street, Chicago, to w^here 
it crosses the Des Plaines, and thence, on the icy surface of 
that stream, down to the Illinois. 

On the Qtli of April he reached the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi. 

In the preceding year, 1681, in the absence of La Salle, 
Father Hennepin and two French companions had descended 
the Illinois to the Mississippi, ascended the latter stream to 
the site of Minneapolis, and given the name of Saint Anthony 
to the falls in the river at that place. 

Through the energy of La Salle, which surmounted every 
obstacle, the whole region of the Mississippi and its tribu- 
taries was now secured to the King of France, by right of dis- 
covery; and a vast empire was acquired by the French in 
America. 



RED MEN AND H'lUTE ON THE If.lBASll 15 



CHAPTER III 
RED MEN Ax\D WHITE OX THE WABASH 

With the new century which began about a score of years 
after the first complete exploration of the Mississippi by La 
Salle and his followers, great changes began in the hitherto- 
silent land which we now call Indiana. Red men came throng- 
ing over its boundaries from various directions; White men 
flitted back and forth, and began to establish trading posts 
among them. 

These changes had special reference to the long river which 
flows, in an irregular diagonal line in a southwesterly course, 
from the northeastern part of the State to its furthest point in 
the southwTSt. The river is the Wabash, w^hose name the 
French wrote Ouabache. 

In the northeastern part of Indiana, near the present city 
of Fort Wayne, there is a distance of only about nine miles be- 
tween the Wabash River and a stream that flows into the 
Maumee, which discharges into the southwestern extremity of 
Lake Erie. Looking at the map, one will readily see that the 
very shortest water route (with portage) from eastern Canada 
to the lower Mississippi w^as by way of Lake Erie, the Mau- 
mee, the Wabash, and the Ohio. One might easily suppose 
that the French on the St. Lawrence would discover Lakes 
Ontario and Erie first of all the Great Lakes, and the Maumee 
and Wabash route first of all the canoe routes to the Missis- 
sippi. But, as Ridpath the historian quaintly observes. History 
often "does the other thing," and not the thing to be expected. 
As a matter fact. Lakes Ontario and Erie were the very last 
of the Great Lakes to be discovered, and Lake Huron was the 
first. 

It is not known who first discovered and used the Maumee, 



i6 THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD 

Wabash, and Ohio route to the Mississippi, or when the dis- 
covery was made. La Salle, in a letter written in 1682, the 
year of his great triumph, speaks of this route as known to him, 
and seems to hint that he had made some use of it. But when? 
After all, it was not a very desirable route, and more especially 
on account of the hostilities to be encountered from Indians on 
the Erie shore. 

In the changeful days of the new century, the Miami In- 
dians poured over our northern line. Other Indians came up 
from below the Ohio River. "By 1718," says J. P. Dunn, "the 
Miamis, Pepikokias, Piankeshaws, and Ouiatenons had taken 
substantially the locations they afterwards held in Indiana." 
The Shawnees did not begin to come from the East until 1745, 
and then they came but slowly. 

Kekionga, the site of the present city of Fort Wayne, is 
often mentioned as a very old Indian locality, and probably 
had been a scene of rendezvous and occasional occupation for 
a long time, on account of its location on a great trail, and its 
relation to the long portage, of which it seemed to be a sort of 
guardian. 

It was not at Kekionga, however, but far down on the 
lower Wabash, that the first White settlements in Indiana 
began. One of these was Vincennes, which claims to have been 
founded in 1702,* though the accuracy of this date is ques- 



*Even if we were in possession of every fact in the unwritten history of 
Vincennes, Ouiatenon, and Kekionga, it might still be very difficult to deter- 
mine when any one of them was "founded," or how "old" it was at a given 
date. A locality known to somewhat nomadic natives for ages as an occasional 
rendezvous, then visited at shorter and shorter intervals and for gradually 
lengthening periods by passing traders and explorers, who perhaps construct, 
on some visit, a temporary camp (which is gradually made permanent and 
strong), comes to have as a custodian a White man married to an Indian 
woman, and ultimately receives a small garrison of defenders. A village 
grows up about it. At what point of time is such a place "founded"? Prob- 
ably the earliest date assigned to the founding of each of these old posts 
is none too early if some latitude is given to the meaning of the words em- 
ployed in the statement made. 



RED MEN AND WHITE ON THE IVABASH 17 

tioned by some critics. It was known for many years simply 
as the "Poste," and is now the oldest city in the State. Early in 
the new century, the French were alarmed to find that British 
traders had access to the Maumee and the upper Wabash, 
and that they were using every art to establish themselves in 
friendship with the newly arrived Indians. An accomplished 
young French nobleman, the Sieur Jean Baptiste Bissot de 
Vincennes, a brother-in-law of Louis Joliet, was sent along the 
Wabash, to persuade the various tribes to leave the shores of 
that; river and return to their former locations. The Ouiate- 
nons, or Wea (we-aw) Indians, along the central Wabash, 
refused to remove; and therefore it was determined to erect a 
French stockade and trading post among them. This was 
done; and the post, which was established as early as 1720, at 
least, near the site of the present city of LaFayette, was for 
generations a place of importance, being often mentioned in 
old official documents of the French under the name Ouiate- 
non. Its location was eighteen miles, by the river, below the 
mouth of the Tippecanoe River, which flows into the Wabash. 

The Sieur de Vincennes, while on his mission at Kekionga, 
was taken ill and died there in 1719. His nephew, Francis 
Morgan, succeeded alike to his title of nobility and to his mis- 
sion on the Wabash. It is claimed by some that Morgan was 
really the founder of the French post at Vincennes, and that 
the post was named not for his uncle, but for a later officer of 
the same name. 

The three ancient settlements on or near the Wabash — 
Vincennes, Ouiatenon, and Kekionga — were of importance, 
because the directness of the Maumee, Wabash, and Ohio 
River route rendered it a very serviceable connection between 
Canada and the Mississippi; and the route became a much- 
traveled highway for traders, missionaries, government agents, 
and others. 

Of the three settlements. Post Vincennes was the only one 
that had any considerable number of White settlers in the 
eighteenth century, and that was laid off as a town. In 1769 



i8 THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD 

this place contained sixty-six heads of families, fifty women, 
and one hundred and fifty children. At this time there were 
but 12 heads of families at Ouiatenon, and only nine at Kekion- 
ga. At the latter place there had been more than one stockade 
erected successively by the French, and called Ft. Miamis;* 
for the exposed place had been the scene of alternating occupa- 
tions and abandonments. 

Such is the interesting but unsatisfying story of the earliest 
settlements made in Indiana. Of the three, Vincennes and 
Kekionga ultimately became permanent cities; while Ouiate- 
non, though somewhat famous in Colonial times, belongs whol- 
ly to the past. 

Vincennes, like Kekionga, has a legendary history extend- 
ing back of its occupation by the French, for it began as an 
Indian village (Chipkawkay). 

The story of the brave men who passed up and down the 
length of the Wabash, two centuries ago is almost wholly un- 
written. It long lived in the legends of fireside and fort; for 
the Wabash is a storied river, and all along its course was the 
scene of active life, of ambitious undertakings of devotion to 
religion and country, of the development of human character 
in all its phases 

The mode of life of the Indians who came to Indiana to 
live in the eighteenth century was not materially different from 
that of Indians in other parts of the country. The Indians 
lived chiefly by hunting. They were not industrious, but they 
were generally brave. Their villages, while usually temporary 
and rude, possessed picturesque features. Some of the Indians 
practiced the old custom of erecting burial mounds above their 
dead; and remains of this sort, though not two centuries old, 
have often been mistaken for works of very high antiquity. 

There were many intermarriages between the Whites and 
the Indians. Young and ambitious adventurers from France 

*Since both the post on the St. Joseph and the one at Kekionga had the 
same name (Ft. Miamis), care must be taken to avoid confounding them. 



RED MEN AND WHITE ON THE IVABASH 19 

chose wives from Indian tribes, and thus firmly cemented the 
friendship of the Red men. Far happier than either the 
English of the Eastern Colonies or the Spanish to the south, 
were the French of the Mississippi valley in their relations 
with the Indians, whom they treated not only with humanity 
and justice, but with refined courtesy on a basis of equality. 



CHAPTER IV 
OLD FRENCH LIFE IN INDIANA 

Vincennes, Ouiatenon, and Kekionga, all on the shortest 
line from Quebec to the mouth of the IVlississippi, had much 
in common. Explorers, traders, and missionaries were con- 
stantly passing up and down the river highways. In 1717 the 
French laid the foundations of a new capital in the far South, 
and named it Nouvelle (New) Orleans. In the following 
year eight hundred French immigrants were to be found in 
it, and the infant city grew rapidly from that time. 

Between the two remote centers of authority, the Wabash 
settlements seemed central and united. Yet they were to be 
separated in different jurisdictions. The high land of the 
Wabash region above Vincennes was called Terre Haute 
(meaning, literally, high land), and this was made the division 
between the authoritv exercised at Quebec and the authority 
exercised at New Orleans. Vincennes thus came to be under 
the direction of the southern commanders, and Ouiatenon and 
Kekionga under the direction of the northern. The entire 
region was known as New France. 

On the Illinois river and upper Mississippi routes from 
Quebec to New Orleans, were established many trading posts, 
of which the ones most important to the Wabash settlements 
were Kaskaskia and Cahokia, both on the Mississippi (south- 
west and west of Vincennes) ; and of those on the Great Lakes, 
Detroit (founded in 1701) was of special importance. 



20 THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD 

The parish church records of 1727 in Kaskaskia show that 
in that year "Vinsenne" (the Sieur de Vincennes) and his lieu- 
tenant were witnesses of a marriage there; and there is among 
the civil records of Kaskaskia a deed recorded by the Sieur 
and his wife in 1735, in which year he is shown to have been 
commandant at the post which bore his name. There is an 
unfortunate gap in the parish records of Kaskaskia from 1727 
to 1741, but for which we might know much more about the 
life of the people at Vincennes. 

An incident of King George's War was the seizing and 
burning of the post at Kekionga, and the capture of its garri- 
son of eight men, in 1747, as the result of a wide-spread Indian 
conspiracy (formed outside of our present borders) for the 
extermination of the French in the West. The plot failed 
miserably elsewhere, and the prisoners at Kekionga were soon 
released by their captors. 

In 1749 a permanent church was established at Vincennes, 
under the charge of Father Meurin. The building was a sub- 
stantial structure, which was destined to become historic in the 
American Revolution. 

In the next year a more permanent fort replaced the prim- 
itive palisade at Vincennes, and within the next five or six years 
the number of inhabitants grew rapidly by immigration from 
Canada and from the Louisiana region. 

Trade with the Indians, who were now very numerous in 
Indiana, was a barter for furs. The demand for furs for 
clothing, in the European markets, was never satisfied. Silver 
and gold came to the trader in increasing flow, and money was 
plentiful in the French settlements. 

The agriculture of the French was primitive, though 
every householder had a well-kept vegetable garden. The 
houses were rude cabins made of logs and of sticks, and roofed 
often with bark or with thatch. They were heated with fire- 
places. Laundering was done in the streams. Wheat bread 
was plentiful, for mills were common, but butter was rare, for 
want of churns. Indian corn was generally parched. Mats of 



OLD FRENCH LIFE IN INDIANA 2, 

Indian design were to be found upon the floors. Feather pil- 
lows were everywhere used, and feather beds were common. 
Religious pictures adorned the walls. The dress of the people 
was French, with some touches of Indian fashion. 

Books were exceedingly rare in the houses, but there was 
much writing of official and commercial reports and journals 
by the men. The persons who were illiterate must not be 
judged by the intellectual standard of illiterates of today, who 
are assumed to be both ignorant and dull. In the time when 
reading and writing were not deemed necessary accomplish- 
ments for women, — even for women of high rank and great 
wealth, — far more attention was given than is given now to 
conversation as an art, and to cultivation of the memory; broad 
information, intellectual brightness, and culture in many lines 
might be the possession of many a person who could make no 
direct use of books. 

The religion was universally Catholic, and the church was 
the center of social and intellectual interests. 

The spirit of the French w^as characteristically gay and 
happy, amid all the privations of their time. Games, dancing, 
and feasting, and the celebrations of weddings, baptisms, etc. 
with music and display afforded relief from the monotony of 
simple life. The constant arrival and departure of river 
parties supplied the people with local news and with tidings 
from afar. 

Much of the picture of French Colonial life presented in 
Longfellow's poem Evanyeline \\\\\ apply, doubtless, to the 
old French settlements in what is now Indiana, though the 
description was written of Acadie, or Acadia (Nova Scotia). 
This part of the poem is peculiarly appropriate as a classic 
for oral reading in the schools of our State. 

If the Indiana student is interested in the poem of Evatuje- 
line, as describing old French village life in Colonial America 
in this period, he will be likewise interested in the very famous 
legend of Aiala, as told in prose by the French Viscount 
Chateaubriand, a part of which relates to the Ohio River, on 



22 THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD 

our southern border*. The destruction of French settlements 
in the South by the Natches Indians, in 1729, and the destruc- 
tion of that tribe by the French in the following year (with 
which that story is connected) are not at all typical of French 
experiences with Indians generally, but are highly excep- 
tional. The relations between the two races in our own region 
were very harmonious, and in most respects are pleasing to 
think upon. 

One of the greatest evils in all the French Colonial periods 
was the sale of strong liquor to the Indians, who were pe- 
culiarly susceptible to its demoralization. This sale was con- 
trary to law, and in disregard of the earnest expostulations of 
the priests. 

It was not until 1724 that the King of France undertook to 
rule the Colonies directly by publishing an ordinance regu- 
lating the government, the administration of justice, and the 
ownership, sale, and treatment of slaves in the settlements made 
in the "Province of Louisiana." Before that time the control 
of these settlements had been left chiefly to the Company of 
the Indies, a great corporation organized for the development 
of the immense domain. A great "factory," or storehouse, of 
the Company of the Indies was Fort Chartres, near Kaskaskia, 
in the Illinois county, with which the interests of Vincennes 
were closely connected. 

The Code of 1724 decreed the expulsion of all Jews from 
the settlements, under pain of forfeiture of their "bodies and 
estates." It prohibited the exercise of any religion other than 
the Apostolic Roman Catholic Church. It specifically recog- 
nized Black slaves as property. It did not class them as at- 
tached to the soil (as included in real estate), but as personal 
property, or chattels. The slavery that existed in the old 
French settlements was of a rather mild type. Slave families 



*Though the legend of Jtnla (older than that of Rip Van Winkle) be- 
longs to the literature of the French, it is native American, and was written 
in an Indian wigwam in the Gulf region. 



OLD FRENCH LIFE IN INDIANA 23 

must not be separated by sale, even to satisfy a mortgage. Slaves 
must not be tortured, though they might be whipped. They 
must not be made to work on Sundays or on holy days. There 
must be no intermarriage of Blacks and Whites, and the mar- 
riage of slaves was as truly sacramental and as inviolable as 
that of Whites. 

Church records and state papers which have been carefully 
preserved in manuscript form and published in historical col- 
lections throw light upon this period, but much that was left 
to family traditions has been lost through the changes in popu- 
lation. Doubtless there were modest trading posts which had 
no official name; and there were some traders who kept out of 
sight of the authorities, in order to escape the heavy license 
fees required of them by the French government. Some of the 
old tassenients (tassijJioN) , or palissades [pal'issad) ^ as the 
French called them, were rude and simple structures of per- 
pendicular logs set close together in the ground. There is a 
dim legend of such a structure as having existed at a place 
isolated from the more usual line of travel and on an old trail 
north of Kankakee, in Porter County, which place is still 
marked upon maps as "Tassinong," although no village is there 
to be found today. If this was really the location of an ancient 
French tassement (as the "Frenchy" pronunciation given to 
the name by the Indians a century ago would seem to indicate) , 
its name is the last remaining use of the old French word in a 
cartographic way. 

A nameless and inconspicuous palisade, the ''petit fort" 
(little fort) on the strand of Lake Michigan about a day's 
march (perhaps twenty miles) west of IVIichigan Citv, has 
left no local legend to indicate its situation, though it is known 
to have existed in this period. There may be elsewhere in 
Indiana something of local legend relating to inconspicuous 
and nameless trading establishments of the old French days. 



24 THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD 



CHAPTER V 
THE END OF THE FRENCH REGIME 

The colossal design of the French to hold and develop their 
vast empire in the heart of North America, while the British 
were limited to the Atlantic region beyond the Alleghanies in 
the East, required the utmost devotion, activity, and bravery 
on the part of the small number of French people who were 
engaged in carrying it forward. 

Theirs was the true heroic age of intense devotion and 
strong endeavor. But the design was too great to be ultimately 
successful. The British passed westward over the Alleghanies, 
and competed for the trade and favor of the Indians. 

The inevitable conflict in arms between the British and the 
French in America began in 1755. It is called in history the 
French and Indian War, or the Conquest of New France. 

In 1758 the French were compelled to give up their fort, 
called Du Quesne {dukane) where the city of Pittsburg now 
stands. In the next year the great fortress of Quebec was 
taken by the British, and the rule of France in North America 
was ended forever. 

Peace was not declared, however, until 1763. 

The Indians, as a rule, were sincerely attached to the 
French, though the British sought to win them over with spec- 
ial favors in trade. 

After the treaty of peace was concluded, a series of trag- 
edies occurred through the eflorts of Pontiac, a very able In- 
dian chief of the Ottawas (in Michigan) to recover the old 
French posts from the British, who had taken possession of 
them very generally. Pontiac's conspiracy was far reaching, 
and was planned with marvelous secrecy and skill. An up- 
rising was to be made simultaneously at all of the French posts. 



THE END OF THE FRENCH REGIME 25 

Within the limits of Indiana the conspiracy was successful 
for a time. The post on the St. Joseph, north of our line, was 
surprised and taken from the British commander, Lieut. 
Schlosser, on the 25th of May in this famous year, 1763. Two 
days later the post of Kekionga, in command of Ensign 
Holmes, was taken. The British commander was slain, and 
his nine soldiers surrendered. Five days later the post at 
Ouiatenon was captured, its commander. Lieutenant Jenkins, 
having too small a force to make an effective resistance. 

In what is now Michigan, however, even the appalling 
treachery of Pontiac did not succeed. The great conspiracy 
ultimately failed. 

The treaty of peace, which had been signed on the 10th 
of February, gave to the British all the French territory east 
of the Mississippi except the city of New Orleans and its im- 
mediate vicinity; and to the Spanish, all the territory which 
France had claimed west of the Mississippi, together with 
New Orleans. 

Pontiac, a broken man, wandered down to Cahokia, where 
he was killed in a drunken quarrel. His friends, desiring to 
honor him, and unwilling that his remains should rest in 
British soil, bore his corpse across the Mississippi with a 
funeral fleet of canoes, and gave him burial on the top of the 
bluff beyond. In the same year many French inhabitants of 
Cahokia followed the dead leader, and took up their residence 
across the river, forming a new village, which took the name of 
Saint Louis. Thus was founded the great city of that name. 

Over the grave of Pontiac was eventually erected the South- 
ern Hotel of St. Louis, and he is commemorated today bv a 
tablet on the inner wall of that edifice. Saint Louis was thus, 
in its origin and during all its Colonial period, a town of 
French people under the Spanish flag and under Spanish con- 
trol. It is necessary to know this fact in order to understand 
later events of Revolutionary War history relating to the re- 
gion within the present boundaries of Indiana. 



26 THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD 

Even French geographical names in Saint Louis (such as 
Carondelet) came to be officially pronounced in a phonetic 
way by the Spanish rulers of the young city, who did not bother 
themselves to learn the mysteries of French pronunciation ; and 
the clock face cut in stone over the oldest church bore the 
Roman numerals IV for four, in Spanish fashion, instead of 
nil, which was the form used by the French on the faces of 
timepieces. 



THE BRITISH COLONIAL PERIOD 

1763— 1777 

CHAPTER VI 
BRITISH RULE IN INDIANA 

British officers had succeeded the French officers in the 
Wabash posts, as we have seen, before the conclusion of the 
treay of peace. After the brief successes of Pontiac's con- 
spiracy in what is now Indiana, the British regained posses- 
sion of these posts, and their officers were more watchful and 
determined than ever before. 

British traders now passed up and down the Wabash, and 
because they had the favor and influence of the British officers, 
they naturally had greatly the advantage of the French traders. 

It must be said that the British commanders and traders 
sought to be just to both the Indian and the French inhabitants, 
and to treat them without marked unkindness, and this was a 
very important consideration ; but the British could never take 
the place of the French of the former time. British traders 
did not marry Indian girls, as French traders had often done 
on terms of perfect equality. They were dignified and dis- 
tant, whereas the French and been graceful and engaging in 
manner. They did not share in the religious faith of the con- 
quered peoples. They spoke a language that was foreign to 
the inhabitants. 



BRITISH RULE IN INDIANA 27 

Thus while the people of the settlements learned to respect 
the British and to rely upon their promises, there was never 
the same spirit of sympathy between them as had characterized 
the relations of the people and their rulers in the old days. 

For a dozen years, between the beginning of British con- 
trol and the Revolutionary War, there is little of incident re- 
corded in the story of the old French settlements of Indiana. 
The government was conducted from Detroit, where the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor resided, and his jurisdiction included Vin- 
cennes, as well as all the other settlements within our present 
borders. 

In the year 1765, we are told, the Miami Indians included 
four tribes, whose total military strength was one thousand 
and fifty men. Of these, two hundred and fifty were the 
Twightwees, or Miamis in the strict sense, who resided at and 
near Kekionga; three hundred were Weas, living at and near 
Ouiatenon ; three hundred were Piankeshaws, who dwelt at and 
near Vincennes; and two hundred were Shockeys, whose vil- 
lages were on the shores of the Vermillion River. 

To the inhabitants of this region it must soon have become 
apparent that the British in America were divided among 
themselves; for the British Colonies soon became involved in 
an angry controversy with the mother country concerning the 
taxing of the Colonists for the payment of the debt incurred 
in conducting the late war. As time went on, hostility and 
defiance were boldly manifested by the Colonists beyond the 
Alleghanies, and events rapidly drifted towards war. 

The officers and traders of this region were in sympathy 
with the British government; and even if they had not been 
reticent from habit, they would not have discussed such mat- 
ters with the people, since to do this would awaken popular 
distrust in reference to their power. 

While the inhabitants, both White and Red, were not senti- 
mentally attached to the British whom they knew, there 
seemed to be no reason why they should favor other Colonists, 
likewise British, distant and unknown, if war should come. 



28 Tin: BRITISH COLONIAL PERIOD 

Any such reasoning left out of account the personal ele- 
ment; and individuals of strong personality were destined to 
play a prominent part in the Revolution in the West. It also 
failed to take in consideration the ardent love of the French 
Colonists for the French nation, and the influence of tidings 
that France was sympathizing with the Colonists in their 
struggle with the British power. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 

1777—1783 

CHAPTER VII 
EARLIEST MOVEMENTS IN INDIANA 

For a year after the beginning of the Revolution by the 
British Colonies of the Atlantic Coast, there was little to sug- 
gest, in what is now Indiana, that a war was waging in the 
East. 

The British Lieutenant-Governor at Detroit was directed 
(March 26, 1776) to employ the Indians "in making a diver- 
sion and exciting an alarm on the frontiers of Virginia and 
Pennsylvania." Virginians had become pioneers in what is 
now Kentucky; and the Indians of our region, supplied with 
British arms and influenced by men in the pay of the British 
officers, were incited to make raids upon such settlers. 

In the spring of 1777 an Indian chief named Cornstalk, his 
son, and two other tribesmen, were detained as hostages by 
American frontiersmen at a fort built at the mouth of the great 
Kanawha, on the Ohio River, and hostilities began, in which 
the four Indians were killed. From this time there were acts 
of violence directed against the White settlers south of the 
Ohio. 



EARLIEST M or EM E NTS IN INDIANA 29 

Early in October of that year a small force of Colonials 
of the West marched over the Old Sac Trail through the 
prairie land now comprising the counties of Lake, Porter, La- 
porte, and St. Joseph, to attack the British post on the St. 
Joseph River, a little north of our present State line. They 
were from the old French village of Cahokia, nearly opposite 
St. Louis, on the Mississippi, and the neighboring settlement 
of Prairie du Pont. There were only sixteen in the company, 
which was led by Thomas Brady, a brave and daring man, a 
native of Pennsylvania, who had lived for some time among 
the French villagers and had acquired influence over them. 
He appears to have been the first Revolutionary leader west of 
the Alleghanies. 

That this ardent young American of Irish stock should 
thus awaken the spirit of revolution among the peaceful vil- 
lagers of a sleepy old river town of the Illinois region, and 
secure followers for so hazardous an expedition, was due to a 
variety of causes. The aid given by France to the new 
American Republic was doubtless one of these. But the per- 
sonality of the leader must have been the principal factor. 

The raid was successful, at first. The British post was 
taken by surprise, with no loss of life except that a Negro, a 
fugitive slave whom the British had harbored, and who at- 
tempted to escape from the fort, was shot and killed. Brady's 
men seized the portable property at the fort, and started to 
return to Cahokia over the trail. 

At the Calumet River they were overtaken by about three 
hundred British, Canadians, and Indians, and were captured. 
Two of Brady's men were instantly killed, and two others were 
wounded. Twelve of the men, including Brady himself, were 
taken to Canada as prisoners. There they were detained two 
years, with the exception of Brady, who managed to effect his 
escape, fled to Pennsylvania, and subsequently returned to 
Cahokia. 

In the spring of the following year a second expedition, 
with the design of repeating Brady's exploit, passed over the 



30 THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 

trail. It was led by Paulette Maillet* (or Maize), and con- 
sisted of three hundred volunteers from Cahokia, St. Louis 
and the region about Peoria Lake. These Colonists were suc- 
cessful. The fort was captured, and the victors secured a 
store of furs and other valuables, and returned home in haste. 
On their way they felt compelled to despatch one of their num- 
ber who was so badly wounded as to impede their march and 
endanger their whole party. 

Indiana's connection with the Revolution thus begins with 
the northwestern part, and with the Old Sac Trail. The an- 
cient highway is to us not merely a relic of ancient Indian life. 
It is associated in the mind with these and other events of the 
great struggle of the Americans for independence, and with 
some events of the War of 1812, as we shall see later. 

Occurrences were now to take place in the river regions of 
the Wabash and of the Ohio, which were ultimately of great 
significance, and which have special prominence in the Rev- 
olutionary story of the west. 

In June of the same year, 1778, a green island in the Ohio 
River was occupied by a force of Virginians under Col. George 
Rogers Clark, who had descended the river from Pittsburg 
and Wheeling, bearing a commission from Governor Patrick 
Henry of Virginia authorizing him to defend the Kentucky 
settlements. Clark's design was to assume the aggressive, and 
to seize the forts at Kaskaskia and Vincennes. So daring a 
scheme did not commend itself to many Kentuckians whom he 
had hoped to have cooperate with him, for they deemed it 
their duty to remain and defend their homes. With the fol- 
lowers whom he had enrolled chiefly in Virginia, he started 
down the river from his island camp on the twenty-fourth of 
June. At the very hour of a notable eclipse of the sun, he shot 
the falls of the river in safety, having left nearly all his bag- 
gage in a rude fortification which he had erected on the island 
and committed to the care of a few White families. 

Post Vincennes was at this time a place of considerable im- 

* Pronounced may-yay'. 



EARLIEST MOVEMENTS IN INDIANA 31 

portance. The British had strengthened the old fort, and 
mounted cannon upon it; and they had christened it Fort Sack- 
ville. The White inhabitants of the town made up a force of 
nearly four hundred militia, whom the British Lieutenant- 
Governor might call upon at any time to aid his regular sol- 
diers. Vincennes seemed to be secure to the British. The 
British commandant, in fact, was believed by the Kentucky 
settlers to have paid the Red man liberally for scalps, as 
evidences of the murder of families on the frontier. 

The French possessed great influence over the Indians, of 
whom there were many living in the old village adjoining the 
town, and large numbers were to be found continually in the 
neighborhood. 

CHAPTER VIII 
THE REVOLUTION AT VINCENNES 

The year 1778 should be ever memorable to the people of 
Indiana as the one in which, by the voluntary act of the people 
of its principal settlement, its fortunes were cast wdth the 
American Republic. 

Having some matters to attend to in Detroit, the British 
Lieutenant-Governor (Abbott), who had been at Vincennes, 
wxnt northw^ard in the summer with the small force that he 
had, leaving the town and fort in charge of the militia. When 
departing, he urged upon them the necessity for keeping a 
close watch for any movements on the part of other people 
south of the Ohio, through Indian spies, and for retaining the 
favor of the Indians around about. 

It was the unexpected that happened. A great surprise 
came from another direction. In the month of July the town 
was throw^n into great excitement. Father Gibault and Doctor 
Lafont, beloved priest and physician, well known to the peo- 
ple, arrived with some companions from Kaskaskia, with a 
marvelous story and an amazing proposition. 

Kaskaskia had been surprised by Clark's force on the night 



32 THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD 

of the Fourth of July. The town was completely surrounded, 
to prevent any escape from it, and the leading citizens were 
put in irons. The priest had gone to Clark, to beg that, 
on being deported, they might not be separated from their 
wives and children, though they expected to give up their 
possessions. Colonel Clark had then assured the priest that 
no confiscation of goods or deportation of persons was contem- 
plated; that the purpose of the expedition was simply to drive 
out the British employers of savages ; that the young American 
Confederation was now in alliance with France, and would 
respect their religion, and guard all their rights. 

As a result, the priest declared, the people of Kaskaskia 
had taken the oath of allegiance to the State of Virginia. 
More than that, they had formed a military company, which, 
under command of Captain Bowman, one of Clark's men, had 
gone to Cahokia. That village, already concerned for more 
than a year in the same cause, had likewise taken the oath of 
allegiance to Virginia. 

Doctor Lafont corroborated the story of the priest. The 
leading men of Vincennes were now prepared to read an 
address which the distinguished emissaries had brought from 
Colonel Clark, and which advised the French inhabitants* to 
throw off the British yoke and become citizens of Virginia. 

With greatest enthusiasm the people responded to the invi- 
tation. A few friends of the British Governor there were, 
who left the country precipitately. They were doubtless in 
his pay. 

The citizens then went in a body to the old church, where 
with great solemnity the oath of allegiance was administered 
to them. Then the magnificent hymn Te Deuni Laudamus 
was sung amid general rejoicing. 

The militia was now reorganized by popular election. The 
American flag was unfurled over the fort, and every vestige 
of British dominion was removed. Thenceforth the people 
of the town considered themselves American citizens, and 
with conscious pride deported themselves as such. 



THE REVOLUTION AT VINCENNES 33 

About the middle of August Captain Leonard Helm, one 
of Clark's men, arrived from Kaskaskia to assume command 
of the fort and to cultivate the friendship and secure the alli- 
ance of the Indians so far as possible. This officer, an experi- 
enced man past the middle of life, was received with great 
acclaim by the Revolutionists at Vincennes. He secured the 
cooperation of '^The-Great-Door-to-the-Wabash," son of 
"The Tobacco," which odd names designated influential chiefs 
of the vicinity; and chiefs of more remote tribes, including 
some from Ouiatenon, came to Vincennes to confer with him. 
Even as far as our northern border line, the Indians were 
influenced in favor of the American cause. 

In October the Legislature of Virginia recognized as 
belonging to that State all citizens of the country west or 
northwest of the Ohio River, and designated this vast region 
Illinois County. 

But before the new "county" could be organized, an event 
occurred which was exceedingly ominous to the American 
cause in the West. 

Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, with a force of about 
thirty regular soldiers and four hundred Indians, suddenly 
descended the Wabash, and appeared at the fort of Vincennes. 

There was no opportunity to organize effective resistance. 
In fact, at the time when this formidable force marched to the 
fort there were but two men in it. These were Captain Helm 
and a private named Henry. The British commander beheld 
the fort gate open. In it was a mounted cannon, which had 
been wheeled to command the only approach, and which was 
loaded almost to the muzzle. Henry was pointing it, and the 
captain stood by with a lighted torch in his hand. 

The British drew steadily nearer. 

"Halt!" cried Captain Helm, when they had arrived 
within hail. His command, given in a loud voice, was heeded. 

"I demand the surrender of your garrison," shouted the 
British commander. 



34 THE REIOLUTIONARY PERIOD 

"Never, till I know the terms," cried Captain Helm with 
decision. 

"You shall have the honors of war," was the assurance 
given by the Lieutenant-Governor; and thus the fort, with its 
garrison of two men, surrendered. The American flag was 
hauled down, and the American hope of acquiring the West 
seemed almost extinguished. For whence could any aid be 
expected? Clark's position at Kaskaskia was one of great 
peril, for the British expected to receive from Detroit, in the 
spring, whatever aid might be needed to recover the full 
possession of the West. 

A prominent merchant of St. Louis, Colonel Francis Vigo, 
coming to Vincennes in the winter as a spy for Colonel Clark, 
in whom he had become iterested, was seized and held a pris- 
oner by the British commander until the French inhabitants, 
with threats, demanded his release. Vigo, as a man of honor, 
might have been released before, on parole, had he given his 
word not to aid the Virginians. He now gave the promise, to 
last only till he should return to St. Louis. This promise he 
kept; but he tarried at St. Louis only a few minutes, to change 
his clothes and obtain some supplies, then at once went to 
Kaskaskia to aid the Virginia commander. For this and 
subsequent great services he deserves the gratitude of our 
country. Vigo County is named in his honor. 

"Faithful, patriotic Father Gibault" was subsequently 
excommunicated by the Bishop of Quebec for his action in 
opposition to the British, and sufifered a loss of property 
through his attachment to the popular cause. 

Utterly desperate seemed the Patriot cause in the West at 
this time, and the fond hopes that had been based upon the 
new order of things were wholly eclipsed. 



THE SURRENDER OF FORT S.ICKllLLE 35 

CHAPTER IX 

THE SURRENDER OF FORT SACKVILLE 

On the twenty-third of February, 1779, a young man of 
Vincennes, who had been hunting at some distance, rode furi- 
ously into the town with tidings of an approaching army, and 
posted up in a conspicuous place the following proclamation: 



TO THE INHABITANTS OF POST VINCENNES 

Gentlemen : 

Being now within two miles of your village, with my army, de- 
termined to take your fort this night, and not being willing to surprise 
you, I take this method to request such of you as are true citizens, and 
willing to enjoy the liberty I bring you, to remain still in your houses. 
And those, if any there be, that are friends to the King, will instantly 
repair to the fort and join the hair-buyer general and fight like men. 
And if any such as do not go to the fort shall be discovered afterward, 
they may depend on severe punishment. On the contrary, those who 
are true friends to liberty may depend on being well treated ; and I 
once more request them to keep off the streets. For every one I find in 
arms on my arrival I shall treat as enemy. G. R. Clark. 



The proclamation was read aloud, and there was much 
suppressed excitement. Eyes were strained to see the advance 
of the soldiers; but they chose to advance behind a low rise 
of ground, and it was impossible to tell their numbers. Their 
banners could be seen, however, over the ridge, and officers 
on horseback, wheeling about on the higher ground, directing 
the long line of marchers. 

The people of the village did not know that this was a 
ruse of Clark to make his numbers seem far greater than they 
were ; that he had come with his half-frozen, half-starved band 
on one of the most perilous marches in American history; 
that his force numbered but one hundred and seventy men, 
who, without provisions and without horses, had marched since 
the seventh of February through the icy waters of overflowed 



36 THE REIOLUTIONARY PERIOD 

lands; that the horses of his officers had just been captured 
from French hunters in the vicinity, and the flags which had 
served for wrappings about his freezing men had but just 
been raised upon their long poles. About two dozen of the 
flags, at long intervals, could be counted as they passed; and 
it seemed that a large force was at hand. Not until nightfall 
did the troop come into the village, and then it was impossible 
for their number to be known. 

At eight o'clock the heights of the town were reached, the 
best positions taken, and Lieutenant Bayley was sent with 
fourteen men to open fire on the fort. 

At the fort, strange to say, the advance of the army had not 
been noted at all; and even when the firing began, it was at 
first supposed to be merely the salute of some drunken Indians, 
until a soldier was laid low by a well-aimed rifle shot which 
passed through a porthole. In the fort were Captain Helm 
and some prisoners recently taken by the British, on suspicion, 
including a citizen named Moses Henry. Mrs. Henry was 
admitted to the fort, ostensibly to carry some provisions to her 
husband, and the news was confided to all the prisoners. 

Clark's ammunition was nearly exhausted; but the French 
produced for him stores of powder and shot which they had 
buried to prevent its confiscation by the British. The To- 
bacco's son came to Clark with a number of warriors, and 
offered their services, which were thankfully held in reserve. 

Clark's men, reinforcing Lieutenant Bayley, completely 
surrounded the fort in the darkness, sheltering themselves 
behind convenient objects, and poured a volley into every 
embrasure that was opened. The cannon of the fort, mounted 
upon the upper floors of strong block houses at the corners, 
proved very ineffective, except that they shattered some build- 
ings in the village. The garrison were bewildered by the 
firing from all directions; by the varying and freakish activity 
in different quarters, in the darkness; by the noisy demonstra- 
tions made now here, now there. No effective return fire 
could be made from the fort at the unseen foe. Through the 



THE SURRENDER OF FORT SACKJ'ILLE 37 

whole night and until nine o'clock on the following morning 
the firing was kept up incessantly, with the exception of a 
single interval of fifteen minutes. 

Captain LaMotte, of the garrison, had been absent from 
the fort, and now returned to it with a few followers. He 
was permitted by Clark's men to reach the fort. Ropes were 
flung down to him and his men, and they ascended the walls. 

Colonel Clark sent a soldier with a flag to the fort, with 
this letter to the commandant: 



Sir: 

In order to save yourself from the impending storm that now 
threatens you, I order you immediately to surrender yourself with all 
of your garrison, stores, etc., etc. For if I am obliged to storm, you 
may depend on such treatment as is justly due a murderer. Beware 
of destroying stores of any kind or any papers or letters that are in 
your possession, or hurting one house in town; for, by Heavens! if you 
do, there shall be no mercy shown you. G. R. Clark. 



The polished British commander returned the following 
reply: 



"Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton begs leave to acquaint Colonel 
Clark that he and his garrison are not disposed to be awed into any 
action unworthy of British subjects." 



All day till evening the firing continued. Then a mes- 
senger came with a flag from the fort, to propose a truce for 
three days. 

This was declined. Colonel Clark would make no terms 
other than surrender at discretion; but he readily agreed to 
a conference. The commanders met at the church. Clark 
frankly explained to the astonished Briton his reason for giv- 
ing no terms. He was not anxious for a peaceable transfer 
of the fort, for he would be really glad to storm it and thus 



38 THE REJ'OLUTIONARY PERIOD 

have an excuse for putting to death the very men who were 
then with the Lieutenant-Governor, for their crime of inciting 
the massacre of innocent families by cruel Indians. 

Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton deemed it best to sur- 
render, and agreed to do so on the following morning, the 
twenty-fifth of February. On that day the surrender was 
effected, and Clark sent up the river sixty men, who seized 
seven British boats loaded with provisions and valuable goods, 
and manned by about forty men. The boat company were 
taken by surprise. The stores were worth about fifty thou- 
sand dollars, and were captured without the firing of a single 
gun. The heroes of this expedition were Captain Helm, 
Major Busseron, and Major Le Gras. 

Thus disappeared forever the British flag from the Wabash 
region. 

The fort at; Vincennes was later named Fort Knox. 

Colonel George Rogers Clark has been called the Hanni- 
bal of the West. He is Indiana's greatest hero of the Revolu- 
tionary era. His statue, in bronze, to-day adorns the Govern- 
or's circle in Indianapolis. 



CHAPTER X 
LAST SCENES OF THE WAR IN INDIANA 

The scene of Revolutionary activity now shifts to the 
north end of the State, where it began with the expeditions 
of Brady and Maillet. 

About the first of November, 1780, a party of seventeen 
men, recruited from Cahokia and commanded by Jean Bap- 
tiste Hamelin, advanced over the Indian trail to attack the 
British post on the St. Joseph, which had been captured twice 
before by Frenchmen of the old Mississippi River town. 
Hamelin was acting under the direction of a French officer, 
De la Balme, who was now in the service of Virginia, and 
who had electrified the people of the Illinois country with 



LAST SCENES OF THE IVAR IN INDIANA 39 

promises that he would capture Detroit, and with appeals 
to their French spirit of nationality. For himselfj he would 
first take the British post at Kekionga. 

While Hamelin thus departed before De la Balme, he 
proceeded very leisurely. He learned that the Indians about 
St. Joseph would be absent on their annual hunt in December. 
They were on, the side of the British, who took good care to 
secure their support by substantial benefits. 

It was not until December had opened that the small body 
of Frenchmen under Hamelin made their descent upon the 
British post, in which British traders were gathered. The 
attack, carefully planned, was successful. The small garrison 
and the traders were captured, with a large amount of plunder. 
The British prisoners were told that they must be taken to 
the Chicago River. The stores of valuable furs and of goods 
for the Indian trade were loaded upon pack horses, and the 
twenty-two prisoners were forced to march. The route fol- 
lowed the beach of Lake Michigan, which afforded a smooth 
pathway broken only by the few streams which flow into the 
lake from between sand hills. Trail Creek (now the harbor 
of Michigan City) was passed in safety, and the company con- 
tinued for about twenty miles westward along the shore, to 
the nameless little palisade which had been erected but which 
had not appeared on maps. 

Here they were overtaken by a pursuing force of fierce 
Pottawattamies commanded by Lieutenant De Quindre, a 
Frenchman in the service of the British. A fierce fight ensued. 
The little force of Hamelin was overwhelmed. Fourteen of 
the men were killed or captured, and only three made their 
escape to tell the tale. 

Meanwhile De la Balme had gone to Kaskaskia and to 
Vincennes, and had proceeded up the Wabash River route all 
the way to the British post of Kekionga. With him were 
French and Indians, about eighty in number. Early in No- 
vember he reached the post, and by a daring movement cap- 
tured it. Detroit was the next objective point in his plans. 



40 THE REl OLUTIONARY PERIOD 

which seem to have been ably formed. However, these were 
not destined to be realized. De la Balme's force was sur- 
prised and overwhelmed by a fierce attack of Indians attached 
to British interests. De la Balme himself was slain. 

Colonel George Rogers Clark next planned to carry out 
the scheme of De la Balme to take Detroit, and thus to destroy 
any claim of possession that the British might urge at the 
close of the war. 

But he was destined never to give this finishing stroke to 
the British power in the West. 

His preparations were made for an advance in 1781, but 
he was disconcerted by the loss of a part of his force, under 
Colonel Archibald Lochrey, which was destroyed by a 
famous Indian trader on the British side, named Joseph Brant, 
at a place where the Ohio River, forming a part of Indiana's 
eastern boundary, receives the waters of Loughery Creek. 
Lochrey's brave party were captured, but only after more than 
a third of their number had fallen. 

Instead of proceeding against Detroit, Colonel Clark 
marched, with one thousand and fifty men, against the Indian 
towns along the Miami River, a little beyond the eastern 
boundary of our State. 

The last marches along the Old Sac Trail in the war of 
the Revolution were made in 1 78 1 . Despite the reverses which 
had attended the expeditions of Brady, De la Balme, and 
Hamelin, the inhabitants of the French villages of the West 
were ready again to take the trail for a final attack upon the 
British post on the St. Joseph, this time under the leadership 
of a Spanish officer of St. Louis. 

Captain Don Eugenio Pourre,* with a company of sixty 
five villagers and sixty Indians, passed over the trail, having 
left St. Louis on the day after New Year's in 1781. He 
proudly bore the Spanish flag, and his expedition was in the 
interests of the Spanish power, to which Saint Louis then 
belonged. As the Spanish were then at war with Great Brit- 

*Pronounced poor-ray'. 



LAST SCENES OF THE IV A R IN INDIANA 41 

ain, his movement was not at all offensive to the patriots of 
our own region. He seemed, indeed, an ally. His enterprise 
was successful. The British post was captured now for the 
fourth time within four years. The British traders at the post 
fell into the hands of the Spanish captain. The Spanish occu- 
pation, however, lasted but a short time. 

After the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to General Wash- 
ington, in the same year, there was a waiting period in the 
East; for peace seemed near, and only its terms were to be 
settled. 

However, the year 1782 was characterized by a succession 
of horrors in the districts to the east and south of Indiana, 
though the population here was little disturbed. 

An Indiana writer in the early history of our State haz- 
arded the conjecture that but for the heroic campaign of 
George Rogers Clark the western boundary of the United 
States at the close of the war might have been fixed at the 
Alleghenies, and not at the Mississippi. This is a reasonable 
supposition so far as it relates to the shores of the Ohio, which 
the Virginians continued to hold; but as to the great North- 
west, which the United States secured when peace was made, it 
would seem that the series of seizures of the British post 
on the St. Joseph destroyed any claim by the British of con- 
tinuous possession, and thus lent strong argument to the peace 
commissioners for its retention by the Americans. Surely the 
movements of the brave leaders in the Northwest were not 
in vain. 



THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD 

1784— 1816 

CHAPTER XI 
A PART OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY 

While the land comprised now in Indiana was included in 
the vast western^ region recognized by Great Britain, in the 
treaty of I'HSSj'^fe belonging to the United States, it was by 
no means clear to what individual States it belonged. Vir- 
ginia claimed all of the land west and northwest of Pennsyl- 
vania, to the Mississippi and the Canadian line, as well as the 
area of the present State of Kentucky. But Connecticut 
claimed, by virtue of its old charter, an east-and-west strip 
which would cut ofTf about a third from the north end of the 
present Indiana, and other States put forth claims to other 
parts of the great Northwest. 

In a spirit of patriotic sacrifice, these States ceded their 
claims to the Confederation of the United States (for this was 
before the formation of the "more perfect Union" under the 
Constitution), in 1784. Jeffersonville, known as the earliest 
"American" settlement in Indiana, began in the same year. 
Three years later, a plan was prepared for the organization 
and government of the "Territory Northwest of the Ohio 
River" (or "Northwest Territory," as it was most commonly 
called). 

The law by which the Congress of the Confederation 
accomplished this was called an Ordinance, and was passed 
in 1787. It was a marvelous and masterly piece of work, and 
has been praised by all who have read it and seen the great and 
enduring results which were destined to follow its enactment. 

Senator George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, once said that 
this Ordinance "belongs with the Declaration of Independ- 
ence and the Constitution ;" that it "is one of the three title 

42 



A FART OF TllF SORT I Iff EST TERRITORY 43 

deeds of American liberty." Abraham Lincoln, in his 
speeches before the war, referred to it constantly as the prece- 
dent set by the fathers of the Republic to limit the expansion 
of slavery; and when he was accused of being radical in his 
attitude towards that institution, he insisted that he was truly 
conservative in following that early precedent. Others have 
called special attention to the declaration of the Ordinance 
concerning popular education. Daniel Webster compared the 
Ordinance to the work of the greatest "lawgivers of antiquity," 
mentioning Solon and Lycurgus. 

The two clauses of this great document which are most 
frequently cited are Articles Three and Six. 

Article Three declares that "Religion, morality, and 
knowledge being necessary to good government and the hap- 
piness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall 
forever be encouraged." 

Article Six ordains that "There shall be neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude in said Territory, otherwise than in pun- 
ishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly 
convicted;" and these words were used in framing the Thir- 
teenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, 
seventy-nine years later, in 1866. 

The plan for surveying the public lands injhe great Ter- 
ritory had been adopted two years before, in lKo5. Sd admir- 
able was it that it has been applied to all subsequent surveys 
to the present time. The land was to be divided into square 
sections, each containing (as nearly as possible) one square 
mile ; and a large square, containing thirty-six of these sections, 
was to form another new denomination in land measure, the 
Congressional township (which must not be confounded with 
the civil township). 

The Northwest Territory was not expected or intended to 
endure long as a political division. As a matter of fact, it 
lasted only thirteen years. But the basic principles of the 
Ordinance were designed to last forever. 

Major John Hamtramk, being in military command at 



44 THE TERRlTORl.il. lERlOD 

Vincennes in 1787, performed a wise act in prohibiting the 
sale of liquor to Indians. This evil had gone on, with little 
or no check, from the early Colonial days, despite the protest 
of the priests that it impaired and sometimes ruined all their 
work. 

In the following year, 1788, General Arthur St. Clair, 
who was now Governor of the Northwest Territory, with his 
capital at Marietta (O.), arrived at Vincennes and organized 
civil government there, appointing judges and leaving copies 
of laws of the Territory. 

During the next six years there were conflicts with the 
Indians, calling for various expeditions of American troops, 
some of which were attended with great disaster. The latter 
occurred without the limits of our State. 

In 1791 General Charles Scott, with about eight hundred 
volunteers of Kentucky, picked men and mounted on superior 
horses, made a rapid dash from the mouth of the Kentucky 
River to Ouiatenon. That place then contained about seventy 
houses, well finished and furnished for that day, and was 
inhabited chiefly by the French, who were under the influence 
of Detroit (then still held by the British, though it belonged 
to the United States). 

While burning Ouiatenon and various Indian towns, 
destroying stores, and sending some prisoners eastward, Scott 
displayed much forbearance and humanity. He started to 
return on the fourth of June, and in ten days reached the Ohio. 

This brilliant exploit is remembered by the popular legend 
that the famous blue grass of Kentucky was then an Indiana 
grass, on which the cavalry horses fed with the keenest relish, 
and that it was accidentally carried into Kentucky by this raid, 
there to become associated in the mind of the world with the 
superb horses of the "Blue Grass Region." 

Later in the season, a similar expedition was successfully 
made by General James Wilkinson against the Indian towns 
on the Eel River, and returned upon the track made by Scott's 
force. 



.7 P.IRT OF THE NORTH ir EST TERRITORY 45 

Both of these movements were brilliantly successful, and 
in the strongest contrast with the awful defeats which came to 
expeditions of General Harmer and Governor St. Clair, be- 
yond our eastern line, in 1790 and 1791. 

General Anthony Wayne, a Revolutionary soldier, suc- 
ceeded St. Clair, and for three years prepared to deal the 
Indians a decisive blow. In 1794, in a series of engagements 
upon the Maumee, the Indians were routed with great loss. 
The property of an intriguing agent of the British was de- 
stroyed before his eyes. General Wayne was called ''Mad 
Anthony," because of the terror which he inspired in the 
defeated and fleeing Indians. He is said to have sworn to 
them that if ever again they should raise their hands against 
the United States, though he were dead, he would rise from 
his grave to destroy them. 

Wayne pushed on to Kekionga, and selected the site for a 
new fort, the last of the series of fortifications erected at this 
noted place. Col. John F. Hamtramk built the fort, and it 
was named in honor of Wayne, the greatest military hero in 
the history of the Northwest Territory. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE TERRITORY OF INDIANA 

Indiana was the name bestowed by Congress upon the vast 
remnant ()f the Northwest Territory when Ohio was detached 
from the southeastern portion in 1800. 

As a Latinized and feminine derivative of the word Indian 
it was not new, having been given to a Pennsylvania town 
which became somewhat conspicuous in Revolutionary days. 
Its meaning, "Land of the Indian," was very appropriate in 
the days when the Territory so named included large tracts 
which Indians had inhabited from time immemorial. Oddly 
enough, it now designates a State whose area was not the home 
of Indians when first visited by the white man. 



46 THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD 

The first Governor of the great Territory was William 
Henry Harrison, son of that Benjamin Harrison who was three 
times Governor of Virginia and who was a signer of the Dec- 
laration of Independence. John Gibson, a native of Penn- 
sylvania, was appointed Secretary of the Territory. There 
was at first no Legislative body. Three Territorial Judges 
were appointed to adopt laws, as well as to apply them in 
decisions. 

Vast as was the area of the inchoate commonwealth, its 
White population was estimated to be actually less than five 
thousand (4,875). Vincennes, claiming almost a century of 
age, w^as the capital. The western boundary was the Missis- 
sippi, which was then supposed to have its origin north of 
the line of British America. Even this imperial domain was 
soon to be extended. 

In the same year, 1800, Spain by a secret treaty ceded to 
France all of the old Province of Louisiana lying west of the 
Mississippi, though it remained under the control of its Span- 
ish officers, and few of its inhabitants suspected that they were 
not still, in theory, subjects of the King of Spain. 

In 1803 the United States purchased the entire Province; 
and in the following year St. Louis was turned over to the 
American authorities. To make the transfer clear, the Spanish 
fiag of red and yellow in that town was lowered, and the 
French tricolor raised to float for a single day; then this was 
lowered, and the Stars and Stripes were raised. Thus for only 
a single day in all its history was the thoroughly-French town 
of St. Louis under the French flag. 

In order that there might be no interval of confusion while 
a plan of government for the new accession was in preparation, 
all of the old Province that lay north of Latitude 30 degrees, 
under the name of the District of Louisiana, was attached to 
the government of the Territory of Indiana and so remained 
until 1805. 

In that year the Southern Peninsula of Michigan was 
cut ofT Indiana Territory by an east and west line touching 



THE TERRITORY OF INDIANA 47 

the extreme southern limit of Lake Michigan. In this line 
of division lurked much of unsuspected evil for the future. 

In 1809 Indiana Territory was again divided, this time 
by the Wabash River and a line running due north of Vin- 
cennes to the Canadian line. The new Territory to the west 
was called Illinois; and Indiana, as a Territory, was reduced 
to the present limits of the State, except that its northern 
boundary line was fated to undergo some readjustment long 
afterwards. Part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was 
still nominally connected with Indiana Territory, but it re- 
ceived no attention. 

It was well that the Territory had an able Governor, for 
there were many knotty problems to be solved, with little of 
past experience as a guide to the Executive. 

The problem of slavery or freedom was one of these. The 
slaves of old French families continued their service under 
the old French law, but the prohibition of slavery by the Ordi- 
nance of 1787 prevented the importation of slaves from with- 
out. Immigrants from the South desired to bring their slaves 
with them when coming to Indiana; and in 1802 Governor 
Harrison called a convention of delegates, popularly chosen, 
to consider measures for the repeal or suspension of that pro- 
hibition in the famus Ordinance. 

The convention met in Vincennes, in December, the Gov- 
ernor presiding. A petition was sent to Congress to repeal or 
suspend the prohibitive clause. But Congress, influenced by 
''Randolph of Roanoke" (Va.), himself a slaveholder, refused 
to comply with it. 

The law was long evaded, however, by means of "inden- 
tures," or voluntary agreements made by servants to serve mas- 
ters in Indiana; and even as late as 1830, fourteen years after 
Indiana had become a free State, there were still at Vincennes 
thirty-two slaves. This fact shows the extreme difficulty of 
eradicating slavery after it has been introduced in anv com- 
munity. 

Governor Harrison in 1804 issued a proclamation forbid- 



48 THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD 

ding the removal of any indentured persons to a slave State, 
where they might be sold into perpetual bondage; and such 
slavery as existed in the Territory was very limited and very 
mild. 

In the same year the Governor proclaimed that the Ter- 
ritory had passed into the second grade of government, and 
called for the election of members of a Territorial House of 
Representatives. 

The first election of such officers was held on the third of 
January, 1805, and seven Representatives were chosen. The 
Governor appointed a Legislative Council of five members, 
from ten persons named by the House. 

Among the greatest services of Governor Harrison to the 
Territory, and in fact to the Nation, were the treaties which 
he concluded with Indian tribes, securing from them large 
concessions of land. His addresses to the Indians possessed 
a dignity and formality which cause them to sound strange 
to us to-day. But the Indians were then numerous and strong 
in Indiana, and the Whites were not in a position to treat 
them with levity. 

An important conference with the Indians in 1802 was 
held at Vincennes, for the settlement of terms for the cession 
of certain lands. In 1803, 1804, and 1805 were concluded 
important land-purchase treaties at the same place; and Vin- 
cennes came to possess the dignity of a capital in which grave 
councils deliberated on matters of great importance to all the 
future of an imperial domain. A notable treaty was signed 
also at Ft. Wayne in 1803, another at St. Louis in 1804, and 
still another at Grouseland (near Vincennes) in 1805. 

A code of revised statutes was adopted by the second 
General Assembly, or Legislature, in 1807. It was a highly 
creditable body of laws. The common law of Great Britain, 
with some exceptions, was made the law of Indiana. 

The Vincennes University, the Borough of Vincennes, the 
town of Jeffersonville, and the Wabash Baptist Church were 
all incorporated in that year. 



THE TERRITORY OF INDIANA 49 

The dignity and responsibility of the Governor's office 
were not underestimated by the incumbent. He resided in a 
large and well-appointed mansion. His demeanor was grave. 
He impressed the Red men with his presence and with his 
words. 

In an office which would possess little attraction for the 
politician of to-day, he proved his greatness, and laid the foun- 
dations of a fame which ultimately carried his name through- 
out the civilized world. 



CHAPTER XIII 
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE 

The Territory of Indiana in 1805 began to be moved by a 
religious delusion of the Shawnee Indians in what is now Del- 
aware County. Lawlewasika (The Loud Voice), a brother 
of the chief Tecumseh, began to call himself The Open Door, 
and to assume the character of a prophet. Claiming to have 
the power of giving life or death to others, and of speaking 
as the mouthpiece of the Great Spirit, he declaimed against 
witchcraft, the use of intoxicants, and intermarriages with 
White people; and he drew to him many followers, despite 
the Governor's efiforts to check the delusion. 

The brothers removed to Ohio, and then to the junction 
of the Tippecanoe and Wabash rivers, where an Indian set- 
tlement came to receive the name of The Prophet Town. Here 
the Prophet gathered about him representatives of many 
tribes, drawn by his growing fame. Tecumseh, meanwhile, 
displayed a spirit of broad nationality among the Indians, and 
held that no tribe, acting individually, had a right to sell 
lands to the Whites. 

In August of 1808 the venerated prophet, now a man of 
wide and strong influence, visited Vincennes, and for two 
weeks held conferences with the Governor. Similar confer- 



so THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD 

ences were held in the following year, and the Governor be- 
came impressed with the idea that British intrigue was at work 
inciting both of the brothers to hostility against the Whites. 
When in September, 1809, the Governor concluded at Ft. 
Wayne an important treaty for the purchase of lands by the 
United States, Tecumseh was very angry; and in August of 
the following year, at a conference with the Governor at Vin- 
cennes, he boldly declared that he would resist the occupation 
of such lands by the Whites. 

Among the Indians upon whom the Governor relied to 
check the schemes of the brothers was Winamac, a leader of 
the Pottawattamies, in whose honor a city of this State is 
named. This friend of the Whites was of great servic to 
the Government. 

It was an ominous fact that the Indians of the Prophet's 
Town in 1810 refused the annual distribution of salt from the 
Governor. In the following August, accompanied by a 
retinue of warriors, Tecumseh held a conference for ten days 
with the Governor at Vincennes, in which the latter was elo- 
quently defied. The Governor's guard came forward, and the 
council fire was extinguished, Tecumseh being sternly ordered 
to leave. He sought and obtained another interview, to little 
purpose. 

At a third conference, in 1811, which is highly historic, 
Tecumseh appeared with a company of three hundred Indi- 
ans; but he now professed friendship, and a disposition to set- 
tle with the President, at Washington, any matters of dispute. 

The crafty leader, however, was planning to create a very 
wide confederacy of the Indians; and he descended the river 
and passed down to Tennessee, which had been for fifteen 
years a State in the Union, but which still contained large bod- 
ies of Indians. On leaving, he forbade the Prophet to begin 
any hostilities, intending that the Governor should be lulled 
into a feeling of security until all the plans for a wide-reaching 
conspiracy should unite such forces of Red men as would com- 
pletely subdue the settlers of the West. His was the great 



THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE 51 

dream of Pontiac, which, nearly half a century before, had led 
that able chieftain to his ruin. 

The Federal Government placed at the disposal of the 
Governor the Fourth Regiment of its Infantry, which was 
under command of Col. John P. Boyd; and Harrison, while 
determined to maintain peace if possible, was equally deter- 
mined upon a policy of thorough preparedness. He inaugu- 
rated an armed but peaceful march through the northern part 
of the Territory, in which the White inhabitants were few, 
and in which the greatest danger lay. 

The force consisted of about nine hundred and ten men, 
of whom about six hundred were militia, composed of citizens 
of the Territory. About two hundred and seventy men were 
on horseback. 

The march began on the twenty-sixth of September, 1811. 
A week later the army encamped at a place a little to the north 
of the site of the present city of Terre Haute. Here a fort 
was built, and was completed before the end of October. It 
received the name of Fort Harrison, at the unanimous request 
of the Governor's officers. The place is one of historic interest 
to the people of Indiana, for it is connected with the fame of 
two men who served, long afterwards, as Presidents of the 
United States; moreover, it was the scene of a legendary con- 
flict between the Illinois and Iroquois Indians in a far-ofif 
time. 

A small fortress, consisting of a single blockhouse, was 
also erected farther up the Wabash, two miles below the mouth 
of the Big Vermillion River, to protect the boats of transport; 
and nine men were left to guard it as the column moved on- 
ward, towards the Prophet's Town. When this was nearly 
reached, there were some demonstrations of hostile feeling 
upon the part of the Indians; but these men were assured that 
the army desired only a good place for encampment, where 
both wood and water might be abundant. Such a place was 
pointed out by the Indians, and the since-famous "Battle 



52 THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD 

Ground" was chosen for the purpose. It lies a few miles to 
the northeast of the present city of LaFayette. 

To guard against a surprise, the army encamped in battle 
order, all of the soldiers remaining dressed and accoutred, 
their bayonets fixed, and their guns and pistols loaded; and 
the injunction was given to hold the outer lines at all hazards 
in case of a night attack. While this extraordinary care 
seemed to have been unnecessary as the long night wore away 
in silence, it saved the army from destruction. The front and 
rear lines of infantry were not parallel, and were separated 
by perhaps two hundred and fifty feet at their nearest ap- 
proach. Between them lay the camp. 

The Governor rose at a quarter past four o'clock (and in 
two minutes the reveille would have been sounded), when, 
without warning, there was a roll of musketry and a horde of 
Indians burst upon the left line of the camp. Some of the 
officers met the savages at the very doors of the tents. 

The Governor's first care was to maintain the line of battle 
intact, quickly reinforcing whatever part seemed weakest. It 
soon became apparent that a deadly fire was pouring from 
the shelter of some trees, about fifty feet distant; and Major 
Daviess, an eminent lawyer serving as militiaman, was ordered 
to charge upon this defense of the Indians. He fell, mortally 
wounded, and his men seemed cut off; but the charge was 
retrieved by the dash of Captain Snelling, and the shelter was 
abandoned by the enemy. For this brave cavalryman of the 
Federal army, the great and famous Fort Snelling, of the 
"Twin Cities" of Minnesota, was afterwards named. 

Through all the conflict, the loud, shrill voice of the 
Prophet was heard,- proclaiming that the bullets of the White 
men would prove harmless, and filling his deluded followers 
with religious frenzy. The latter were quickly undeceived. 

The attack was soon over. It was not designed to be long, 
A quick dash in the darkness of the woods, and the destruction 
of sleeping soldiers, was the plan. It had failed; and with 
the advancing light, the savages slunk away, bearing off their 



THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE S3 

dead, while the discredited Prophet made his escape with a 
few personal followers. His wide-reaching influence may be 
judged by the fact that his force was made up of Shawnees, 
Hurons (Wyandottes), Chippewas (Ojibways), Ottawas, 
Pottawattamies, Sacs, and Winnebagoes. Only a few Miamis 
were among them. The number of Indians engaged cannot 
be known. It has been estimated at one thousand, and at as 
low a number as 350. Of Harrison's men, thirty-seven were 
killed, and twenty-five mortally wounded. Thirty-eight 
Indian warriors are declared to have been killed. 

Governor Harrison advanced to the Prophet's Town, and 
burned it, with its stores. He then returned to Fort Harrison, 
where he left Captain Snelling in command, with his com- 
pany; and disbanding his military auxiliaries, he returned to 
Vincennes with the citizens of that place who had served as 
militia. 

The attack on his camp was significant of coming events. 
The Nation was rapidly drifting into war with Great Britain, 
and the large number of Indians whom the Prophet had 
drawn from the distant North were doubtless incited by Brit- 
ish influence to break the power of the Americans on the 
western frontier. 

The "battle of Tippecanoe" is an expression as familiar 
to all Americans as the "Battle of Waterloo." Most people 
are puzzled to account for the fact. The explanation is that 
this wide fame, which did not begin until nearly three decades 
later, was political rather than military or historical. In 1840, 
when Harrison was the candidate of the Whigs for the 
Presidency, the Opposition sought to ridicule and belittle him 
in every way. Instead of giving him a campaign name taken 
from his eminent and well-known services as a general in the 
War of 1812, they seized upon this (then little known) defense 
of his camp from Indians, and dubbed him, in derision, the 
"Hero of Tippecanoe."* General Harrison's supporters, who 

*For some reason, geographical names ending with the sound of oo seem 
to have a certain humorous suggestiveness. Bamboo, Kalamazoo, Yazoo, etc., 



54 THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD 

turned to advantage every slur cast upon him, took up the name 
and spoke and sang it everywhere in the campaign of that year, 
and it rang through all America and was echoed beyond the 
sea. 

It is necessary for the student of American history to under- 
stand that the great fame which came so late to the night 
attack on the camp at the Tippecanoe was adventitious; for 
otherwise he will be misled by it, as so many ill-informed 
writers have been. 

Fortunately the "battle of Tippecanoe,'' while of little sig- 
nificance in military history, will bear close inspection. The 
defence was admirably conducted in all particulars; and the 
foresight, wisdom, and care manifested by the Governor were 
worthy of a battle upon which the fate of an empire might 
depend. 

As for local interest in the conflict, there was great reason 
for this in the high character of many of the slain men who 
were not soldiers by profession, but simply patriotic citizens 
accompanying their Governor in the character of militia. 
Their sacrifice was deeply felt in Indiana, where the long- 
famous Battle Ground has been a shrine of patriotic devotion. 



CHAPTER XIV 

INDIANA TERRITORY IN THE WAR OF 1812 

The war with Great Britain, of which the night attack on 
the camp at the Tippecanoe was the precursor, came in June 
of the following year, 1812. It was a conflict for which the 
young Republic was in no wise prepared, and in which the 
Nation suffered many deep humiliations. 

have been much drawn upon by humorists. Tippe-canoe, for campaign pur- 
poses, was especially available for humor, since it suggested an unsafe and 
insignificant boat on the political sea. 



THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE 55 

It is to be regretted that our American histories have too 
often given a wrong impression of the struggle as a whole, 
by emphasizing our successes in arms and minimizing our 
defeats. 

In Indiana it was "a Captains' war," made up of local con- 
tests of small parties, and calling forth the highest qualities of 
individual valor and judgment. Indiana's part in this war is 
thus a subject of value to the student of history, as illustrating 
on a small scale what a war of defense should be. 

Governor Harrison, clearly seeing what was to come, was 
ready with measures of preparedness. The building of block- 
houses, where desirable, was recommended, and the militia 
of all the counties were told to be always in a state of readi 
ness. Towards the Delawares, who had been friendly in the 
late crisis, he recommended forbearance in all matters of 
doubt; but in the case of other tribes the officer of the militia 
must be prompt to pursue and make retaliation for any out- 
rages committed "if the number of men under his command 
is not inferior to the supposed number of the enemy." 

Throughout the spring and summer, blockhouses were 
erected in all the settled parts of the territory. Farmhouses 
were provided with loopholes, and doors and windows were 
provided with strong bars. 

A great council of the tribes was held in May on the 
Mississinewa River. Peaceful counsels prevailed, being 
strongly urged by the Delawares and others. Tecumseh, who 
had returned from the South, belittled the affair on the Tip- 
pecanoe as "the unfortunate transaction that took place be- 
tween the White people and a few of our young men at our 
village," and declared that this "transaction" had all been 
"settled" between his people and the Governor. "Had I been 
home," he added, "there would have been no blood shed at 
that time." Doubtless this was true; for he had not then 
perfected his great alliance, and was not ready. He was 
interrupted with indignation and reproach by the Delawares, 



56 THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD 

but he again made a hypocritical pretense of a desire for 
peace. Like Pontiac, his seeming model, his role was one 
of treachery. 

An interesting movement of the war at its beginning was 
the hurried march of Captain Wells, with about thirty friendly 
IVliamis, from Fort Wayne along the old Sac Trail to Fort 
Dearborn (Chicago). Captain Nathaniel Heald, the Com- 
mandant of this post, had received orders from General Wil- 
liam Hull, then in command at Detroit, to evacuate the post 
and retire eastward. Captain Wells, whose niece was the 
wife of Captain Heald, sensed the danger, and felt that he 
was needed. He reached the doomed fort before the evacu- 
ation. The garrison of fifty-four regulars and twelve militia- 
men marched out of the fort on the fifteenth of August, and 
reached the place which is now the foot of Eighteenth street 
in Chicago, when the escort of supposedly-friendly Indians 
diverged behind the sand hills and began a massacre of the 
whole line, sparing not even the women and children. Cap- 
tain Wells was the hero of the defense, but fell in the fight. 
Twenty-six of the regular troops, all of the twelve militiamen, 
two women, and twelve children were slain by the savages. 
Twenty-eight persons were held for ransom. 

Mrs. Heald was about to be despatched with a tomahawk 
when she was rescued by Winnemeg and Wabansee, two faith- 
ful friends of Captain Wells. The site of the massacre was 
marked for more than eight decades by a historic tree, which 
fell at last, the victim of a storm. Near its site, adjoining the 
palatial Pullman residence, is the superb Massacre Monu- 
ment, with the rescue of Mrs. Heald shown in life-size bronze 
statuary, and with scenes of the old fort in bas-relief on plates 
of bronze. While the massacre itself occurred outside of our 
State's northwestern limits, it belongs to this part of Indiana's 
history. 

The disgraceful surrender of Detroit, with its garrison of 
three hundred and forty regulars and about two thousand 



INDIANA TERRITORY IN THE irAR OF iSu 57 

militia, to the British General Brock's thirteen hundred men 

(including regular soldiers, militia and Indians) followed on 
the next day withoutthe firing of a gun. Its intlucnce was felt 
throughout Indiana, and Indians who had been wavering in 
their allegiance were easily won over to the British cause. 

Early in September the Indians about Fort Wayne wxre 
suspicious in their actions, and the fort was put in a state of 
siege. For five weeks the besiegers surrounded it; but there 
was no thought of surrender on the part of its brave garrison 
or of the villagers, all of whom were gathered within its shel- 
tering walls. 

The hostilities extended rapidly southward. On the fourth 
of the month (September) Fort Harrison (Terre Haute) 
sustained an attack under circumstances as thrilling as those 
which made Captain Wells an immortal hero. The com- 
mander of the fort was a sturdy young Virginian of the regu- 
lar army, Captain Zachary Taylor, who was destined to attain, 
more than a third of a century later, the highest honor in the 
gift of the American people. 

The attack w^as made at night by a force made up of 
Shawnees, Winnebagoes, Kickapoos, and Pottawattamies, 
with a few Miamis. The Indians started a fire, to burn one 
of the blockhouses, before their presence was know^n. The 
command w^as instantly given to form a bucket brigade, and 
pass water from the well, to extinguish the blaze. But the fire 
was beneath a blockhouse w^hich was used for stores and was 
not easily accessible from within. The fire had first to be 
located definitely. Then the door of the storeroom had to be 
broken open, being securely fastened, and there w^as delay and 
confusion. Unfortunately, a barrel of whisky was overturned, 
and its contents ran down upon the flames, which in an instant 
blazed up fiercely and climbed to the roof. The roaring of 
the unq.uenchable flames, the despairing screams of the women 
and children who were in the fort for protection, and the 
hideous yells of the savages without, rendered the scene appal- 
ling beyond description. 



58 THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD 

So many of the soldiers at the time were stretched upon 
beds of sickness that only about a dozen could be depended 
upon for active service; and two of the strongest and ablest 
men, believing that the doom of the fort had come, climbed 
over the palisade on the dark side, and made a cowardly 
escape. 

Captain Taylor quickly perceived that the fire must be kept 
within limits, and a new wall built inside the gap that would 
be left when the blockhouse should fall. To prevent the 
spreading of the fire, the roof of the blockhouse must be thrown 
off. This was done; but in order to do it the soldiers must 
climb upon ladders into the fierce light of the flames, which 
seemed to deepen the darkness of the shelters of the foe. 
Bright marks were the brave men for the deliberate fire of 
the enemy. 

With indescribable energy the blazing roof was thrown 
down, and the new inner rampart erected. Again and again 
were new fires kindled at unexpected places, only to be extin- 
guished by the downpour of water from the buckets. Until 
six o'clock in the morning the fierce attack continued, when 
the Indians slunk away, after securing all the cattle and horses 
in the vicinity, or shooting any that they could not catch. 

One of the most pathetic events of the war was the massacre 
of the Pigeon Roost settlement in Scott County, where twenty- 
four inofifensive residents were cruelly slain. This was on the 
evening of the third of September. 

Meanwhile, Governor Harrison had been appointed by 
the Governor of the State of Kentucky to head a force of 
militia for the defense of the Northwest, and he now marched 
to the relief of Fort Wayne, which had held out against the 
long siege. 

In this march a Pottawattamie chief named Logan accom- 
panied the army, and did good service. Mortally wounded in 
an encounter in which he killed Winamac (who had now 
joined the British interests), he died in the camp of General 
Winchester, much regretted, and received the honors of war. 



INDIANA TERRITORY /A THE IV AR OF 1S12 59 

He was not the Logan whose famous speech (formerly 
studied in school Readers) was preserved in the writings of 
Thomas JefTferson, but a true friend of the Whites, whose name 
is perpetuated by the city of Logansport. 

Governor Harrison was now appointed by President 
Madison to be a Brigadier-General (and later to be a Major- 
General) in the war, and to assume great responsibilities in 
Canada. He resigned the office of Governor, which he had 
highly honored, to the Territorial Secretary, John Gibson. 
The latter was the man to whom the elder Logan had made his 
famous speech, thirty-eight years before. 

While General Harrison was conducting his campaign 
against the British, Lieut.-Col. John B. Campbell led an expe- 
dition from Ohio to destroy the villages of treacherous and 
hostile Miamis on the Mississinewa, since men of this tribe 
had participated in the siege of Fort Wayne and in the Pigeon 
Roost massacre. Campbell's force, which consisted of about 
six hundred cavalrymen, chiefly Kentuckians, swept along the 
bank of the Mississinewa and on the 17th of December, 1812, 
in a fierce engagement of an hour's length which is known 
as the Battle of the Mississinewa, he defeated the savages, who 
were ably led. The weather w^as very cold, the fighting fierce, 
and the campaign was a memorable one. Campbell destroyed 
the villages at points from fifteen to twenty miles from its 
junction with the Wabash. Nearly all the prisoners taken 
were Muncies, whom the chief Silver Heels had previously 
kept from hostilities. 

Colonel Campbell's instructions were to protect the Dela- 
wares, so far as possible, because of the friendly disposition of 
their chiefs. This tribe, known to anthropologists as the Lenni 
Lenape, is of special interest. About sixty years before this 
time they had resided east of the Alleghanies. In 1801 some 
Christians of their tribe had removed to the banks of the White 
River, to instruct other Delawares there in the exercise of 
religion. Among them were Joshua, the "chapel interpreter," 
Brother Natage, and Brother Luckenbach, from Bethlehem, 



6o THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD 

Pennsylvania. Their pious labors were broken up by Tecum- 
seh, in 1806. After the Battle of Mississenewa the Delawares 
were rewarded for their general fidelity to the Government by 
being transferred to desirable lands in Ohio. 

At the battle of the Thames, in Canada, in which General 
Harrison commanded the American forces, Tecumseh was 
slain by Richard M. Johnson, a dashing Kentuckian. After 
the war, General Harrison removed to his estate known as 
North Bend, in Ohio, a little beyond the boundary of Indiana, 
where he resided until his inauguration as President, in 1841. 
Just across the river, in Kentucky, lived his nearest neighbor. 
Col. Richard M. Johnson, who was Vice-President from 1837 
to 1841, and who was defeated as a candidate for the same office 
in 1840. 

A memorial of the War of 1812, in which conflict Amer- 
icans achieved many brilliant successes on the ocean, is to be 
found in the names of Porter County and its city of Valpa- 
raiso, which commemorate Commodore David Porter and the 
brave but unequal battle of the Chilean seaport at which his 
ship, the "Essex," was destroyed. A picture of this famous 
ship forms the seal of this, the only Porter County in the world. 



CHAPTER XV 

LAST YEARS OF INDIANA TERRITORY 

That a statesman should voluntarily retire from the United 
States Senate to become the Governor of a rude Territory 
populated largely by savages, seems almost incomprehensible 
to-day. Yet in 1813 Thomas Posey, Senator from Louisiana, 
who had been a Major-General in the Revolutionary War, 
resigned his seat to become Governor of Indiana Territory 



LAST YE.IRH OF INDIANA TERRITORY 61 

(having been appointed to the position by President James 
JVIadison), and doubtless deemed the appointment a pro- 
motion. 

The inherent greatness of the Governor's office seems not 
to be realized in some States as it has been in Indiana from 
the beginning. It has been remarked that the people of Indiana 
from Territorial days have taken pride in the ability, culture, 
and social eminence of their Governors, not being attracted 
by the appeals to prejudice against refinement ^vhich are 
sometimes addressed to "the plain people." As in the Spanish- 
American countries, where even the poorest of the people de- 
sire a "Ladino" (man of learning) to lead them, the people 
of Indiana have preferred men of high attainments for their 
chief magistrate. Indeed, it was not until after sixty years of 
Statehood that a farmer was chosen to the Governor's office 
and was popularly designated as "Blue Jeans"; and even then 
these facts were but incidental, since the first "farmer Gover- 
nor" had long and ably served the State, and was chosen for 
his experience and integrity, not for his calling in life or for 
his dress. 

Governor Posey entered upon his duties at the capital, 
Vincennes, on the twenty-fifth of May, 1813. 

An expedition under Col. Joseph Bartholomew, in the 
summer, to overawe any hostile Indians in the north-central 
parts of the State, did little fighting, but perpetuated the old 
Indiana names of its officers— DePauw, Dunn, Tipton, Bigger, 
Owen, Dubois, Shields, and Russell. 

There had been no session of the General Assembly in 1812. 
The last session of this body was now held at Vincennes, and 
the capital of the Territory was removed to Corydon, in Harri- 
son County. The first legislation in the new capital, in 1814, 
sought to prevent the practice of dueling, to improve the 
militia and the jurisprudence, and to provide for a permanent 
revenue. 

That a frontier Territory, in which all families were 
practiced in the use of arms, should take drastic measures thus 



6z THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD 

early among the commonwealths of the world to abolish duel- 
ing, was indeed remarkable. 

In 1816 the services of Governor Posey were terminated 
by the admission of Indiana to be a State in the Union. A 
Constitutional Convention had met in Corydon, and prepared 
a fundamental law, which was speedily ratified at an election 
called for the purpose; and Indiana took its place as a State, 
a new star being added to the flag to indicate its admission to 
the Union. 

A flagitious newspaper romance, about sixty years after- 
wards, sought to throw discredit upon Governor Posey's 
parentage, and at the same time to dishonor the memory of 
Washington and of the family of one of his Generals ; but being 
baseless, it was rebuked with public contempt. There is no 
law to protect the memory of the honored dead from libel or 
from slander; and when this is assailed, the case must rest 
with the intelligence and sense of honor of the public. 

The last two years of the Territory's existence, was a period 
of growth and prosperity to which Indiana had been a 
stranger. The war of 1812 was closed by treaty with Great 
Britain before the end of 1814, though news of the peace was 
not received in time to prevent the Battle of New Orleans, in 
Louisiana. 

Strangely varied was the small population of Indiana in 
the Territorial days. Old French life, new pioneer-"Ameri- 
can" life, and Indian life were all here, and there were not a 
few Negroes, slave and free. 

Important young river towns there were, with large and 
durable dwellings, such as one may yet see at JefTersonville, 
Vevay, Brookville, and elsewhere, which give ample testimony 
to the quality of the founders. 

In the southeast corner of Indiana, the Swiss began to set- 
tle and to plant their vinevards within a year or two after the 
formation of Indiana Territory. Long afterwards the culture 
of the vine in this neighborhood of Cincinnati drew the atten- 
tion of Longfellow, who, receiving from Cincinnati friends a 



LAST YEARS OF INDIANA TERRITORY 63 

present of wine from these vineyards, wrote his clever poem on 
Cataicba JJ'ine and conferred upon the city its proud title 
with the lines — 

"To the Queen of the West 
In her garlands dressed, 
On the banks of the Beautiful River." 



THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

1816 — igi6 

CHAPTER XVI 
THE FIRST QUARTER-CENTURY OF THE STATE 

The first Constitution of Indiana, largely prepared under 
the spreading branches of the old ''Constitution Elm" at 
Corydon, provided for annual meetings of the General Assem- 
bly, and for a Governor's term of three years. Its most signifi- 
cant feature was its prohibition of slavery. Even this, for a 
long time, was but partially effective, owing to the strange 
vitality of that institution, which perpetuates it in the very face 
of law where it has once been established and has gained a 
strong foothold. 

The first General Assembly met at Corydon, on the fourth 
of November. The first Governor, Jonathan Jenning, was 
inaugurated on the seventh; and the formal admission of the 
State to the Union was completed on the twelfth of December. 

Governor Jennings has been described as "a young Hercu- 
les stripped for the fray, and wielding the mighty bludgeon of 
'No slavery in Indiana.' " Educated in Pennsylvania, he had 



64 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

been for a decade in Indiana an opponent of the slave system. 
When the Governor resigned his office, in 1822, to be a Repre- 
sentative in Congress, Ratlifif Boon succeeded him. Later, 
ex-Governor Boon became prominent in politics in Missouri, 
to which State he had migrated. 

William Hendricks, a Pennsylvanian, now of Madison, 
was so winning and clever a politician that he received every- 
one of the 18,340 votes cast for Governor in the State in 1822. 
Even the ''Era of Good Feeling" can hardly account for a fact 
so astonishing. 
• The seat of Government was removed from Corydon to 
Indianapolis in November, 1824. The new capital city had 
been decided upon nearly four years before, when (Jan. 11, 
1820) the General Assembly appointed ten Commissioners to 
select a central site for the building of such a city. The four 
sections of land offered by the Federal Government for the 
purpose were selected in the exact center of the State, by the 
cardinal points, and the choice was ratified by the General 
Assembly on the sixth of January, 1821, the prospective city 
then receiving the name /wd'/«w<3/>o//.y, which means (in Greek) 
Indiana City. The surveyors who planned the plat of the new 
capital took suggestions from the artistic plat of Washington, 
and one of them had assisted the great landscape gardener 
L'Enfant in planning the latter. Cities usually grow natur- 
ally from small beginnings; and the planning of an important 
city at the outset has been always a rare event. 

The new city was built in the midst of a vast wilderness. 
While it was on the border of a river (West Fork of White 
River), the latter was of little or no service for navigation; 
and removals to Indianapolis were effected only with much 
labor and discomfort, over new and unimproved roads. The 
National Road, a highway for wagons and stage coaches, ex- 
tending westward from Cumberland, Md., was to pass through 
central Indiana to Indianapolis and Terre Haute; but its 
progress in building was slow, and it was not completed 
through Wayne County until 1827. 



THE FIRST QUARTER-CENTURY OF THE STATE 65 

The crudeness of life in the central settlement of Indiana- 
polis in its early years of isolation and of comparative inacces- 
sibility affords humorous pictures for delineation by novelists 
and others, but it was not typical of Indiana life in general in 
this period or at any time. The river towns of the southern 
counties of the young State, which gave it character, were 
reached by steamboats, from Territorial days, and contained 
commodious mansions, well appointed with the best furnish- 
ings of their time, and with not a little of luxury. Later, when 
the north end of the State came to receive its immigrants by 
lake and river from New England and New York, the new 
towns, from their beginning, were reached by convenient 
routes; and they began with substantial, often luxurious, resi- 
dences and business houses. The young State was always am- 
bitious. There is not, nor ever was, an Indiana dialect. If 
certain distinctively Southern expressions were heard in the 
southern counties, equally distinctive Northern expressions 
were used in the northern part. Brought into comparison in 
Indiana, both became noticed, and were generally avoided. 
The charming oddities of speech in Riley's supposedly dialect 
poems are individualistic or imaginary, and are as fresh and 
novel to the Indiana reader as to the people of any part of the 
Nation. 

The familiar and pathetic picture of Abraham Lincoln's 
childhood and youth in Indiana (Spencer County) in this 
period exhibits the hardships of a pioneer in the wilderness. 
This, however, is an extreme type. On the other hand, in the 
same years (the first fourteen years of Statehood) the follow- 
ers of George Rapp, at New Harmony, were living in commo- 
dious houses amid their vineyards and fields, with every com- 
fort and much of luxury, in security and peace of mind (for 
nine of these years) ; and they were followed by the experi- 
mental company of Robert Dale Owen, whose wealth and skill 
were lavishly devoted to the cause of the physical, moral, and 
intellectual welfare and the happiness of his followers. To 
New Harmony came Neef, a former assistant of Pestalozzi 



66 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

himself, to teach in Indiana the Pestalozzian principles before 
they were taught in other States in America. An ideal life, 
unmatched elsewhere, was the life that developed at New 
Harmony in the young State. 

Both of these pictures represent extremes. Between them 
was the home life of the well-to-do citizens generally, with 
much of refinement both in personality and in surroundings. 

Governor Hendricks resigned the Governor's chair in 1825, 
having been elected to the Senate, and his place was taken by 
James Brown Ray, of Brookville, who was then acting as 
President of the State Senate, the Lieutenant-Governor having 
resigned. 

Governor Ray was elected to the office In the same year, 
was re-elected in 1828, and served as Governor, in all, about 
seven years. He was a Kentuckian, and had studied law in 
Cincinnati. Eccentric and theatrical, he did not add to the 
dignity of the State; but there chanced to be, in his time, 
little that was of a nature to render him conspicuous. 

From 1825 there were established a long list of County 
Seminaries. After 1831, no special charters were required for 
these. Good schooling was provided for the children of well- 
to-do families in the county seats, though the rural schools 
were generally very poor. Hanover College, as a chartered 
Academy, began in 1828. 

Noah Noble, of Brookville, a Virginian of remarkable 
popularity, was elected Governor in 1831, though he was a 
Whig and the State was heavily Democratic. He was re- 
elected in 1834. 

In 1832 there was much fear that Indiana might be drawn 
into Blackhawk's war, which raged in northern Illinois and 
in the Territories of Wisconsin and Iowa. Governor Noble 
sent two detachments of militia to guard the Wabash and Lake 
regions; but Indiana was not invaded. A souvenir of this 
period is the blockhouse erected to guard the settlers of Door 
Prairie. Forty-two citizens, directed by Captain Peter, con- 



THE FIRST QUARTER-CENTURY OF THE STATE 67 

structed at Door Village (Laporte County) a creditable stock- 
ade with two diagonally-opposite blockhouses. 

A State Road, to run southward from Michigan City, on 
Lake Michigan, through Indianapolis, to Madison, on the 
Ohio, was begun in 1831, and continued through Governor 
Noble's terms of office. The Erie Canal (opened in 1825) 
contributed to forming a water route all the way from the 
Hudson River to Michigan City and to Fort Wayne. The 
northern third of the State, long an almost unbroken wilder- 
ness, was now receiving great accessions of people, many of 
them possessed of considerable capital and accustomed to the 
amenities of life. 

In 1832 the State entered upon the construction of the 
Wabash and Erie Canal, which it was hoped would give the 
old water route from Lake Erie to the Ohio, in the approach- 
ing high civilization of the nineteenth century, the same rela- 
tive importance that it had possessed in Colonial days. In 
order to secure sufficient votes for this measure in the General 
Assembly, various public works in other parts of the State 
had to be conceded to "log-rolling" politicians, and the conse- 
quence w^as that Indiana entered upon a system of construction 
far beyond the limits of financial safety. The eventual dis- 
placement of canal traffic by railways, and the awful panic of 
1837, were not then foreseen; and the State was led into a 
scheme that ended in disaster. But during the years of Gov- 
ernor Noble's terms Indiana enjoyed high prosperity, there 
was work for evervone to do, and the future seemed bright. 
Ten millions of dollars were appropriated by the State for 
the construction of these works, and a heavy State debt was 
thus incurred. 

Among the pther notable enterprises undertaken in 1832, 
a permanent School Fund was begun, to be made up of de- 
linquent tax sales. In the next year permission was given to 
the people of the Congressional Townships to sell their school 
lands, and thus add to the fund. In 1834 a State Bank was 
chartered. Within a vear it received over a million dollars 



68 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

on deposit from the Federal Government. On all such moneys 
loaned it received a high rate of interest, but it paid none 
whatever. A large number of shares in the Bank were held 
by the State, bonds being sold to pay for them. A tax on all 
the other shares was raised for the School Fund. The State's 
profits at the close of the Bank's life were also added. These 
amounted ultimately to $4,767,805.89. The tax on the shares 
reached nearly $80,000. 

In 1836 the Federal Government began to distribute its 
large surplus revenue among the States, and Indiana's share 
was expected to be $860,254. Half of this sum was added to 
the State School Fund. For a long time, however, education 
was deplorably neglected; and in 1840 one-seventh of the 
population were found to be wholly illiterate. There was 
much of class distinction in Indiana. -The favored class en- 
joyed excellent opportunities for education. There was little 
provision for the children of the poor. 

The old State House of Indiana in Indianapolis was com- 
pleted in 1835. It occupied the site of the south wing of the 
present State House, and faced southward. Its cost was about 
sixty thousand dollars. Patterned after a Greek temple 
(though it had a central cupola), and presenting massive 
Doric pillars to the front, it was dignified in appearance, and 
it lasted for more than forty years. 

A vexatious problem of the time was a famous boundary 
dispute. By the Constitution of Indiana, the north line of 
the State w^as north of the southern extremity of Lake Mich- 
igan, and the new city which began to achieve importance 
as a harbor at the mouth of "Trail Creek" (Michigan City) 
was within our borders. But Michigan claimed that the true 
line was that of Indiana Territory as established in 1805, and 
that the harbor city was not ours, nor was the harbor at Toledo, 
on Lake Erie, Ohio's. In 1836, when Michigan was ready to 
be admitted as a State, the contention was strong. Our State 
maintained its claim, but Ohio failed to do likewise. For 
satisfaction to Michigan, the North Peninsula was added to 



THE FIRST QUARTER-CENTURY OF THE STATE 69 

that State, which was admitted in 1837. Had there been no 
doubt as to the ownership and jurisdiction of Michigan City 
when, as an infant city, it was a rival of Chicago for the trade 
of the Lakes, what might have been its destiny! Large capital 
could not be invested while the ownership and jurisdiction 
were in doubt. 

With the settlement of the Boundary dispute there came 
a rapid settlement of our northern border, the immigrants 
usually traveling comfortably (if not luxuriously) by lake 
and river from their old homes in the Northeast. The new 
communities thus formed were typical of that section.* 

David Wallace, of Brookville, a graduate and then a tutor 
of West Point, who had now served for two terms as Lieuten- 
ant-Governor, was elected Governor in 1837, in time to re- 
ceive the full brunt of the blow given to prosperity by the 
great panic. He has been censured for not stopping the work 
of construction at once; but, like many others, he did not 
realize that the scheme would necessarily fail, and until 1839 
the work went on. To pay the contractors and meet obliga- 
tions generally, the States authorized an issue of treasury notes 
to the amount of one and one-half millions of dollars; but this 
proved only a temporary expedient. In 1842, when a million 
dollars of these notes was in circulation, they suddenly 
dropped in value to sixty or even to fifty cents on the dollar. 

The Indiana College at Bloomington (which had devel- 

*As illustrating the New England custom of naming children for Bible 
characters and Christian virtues, a representative community in our Lake 
region has included among its names of citizens Azariah Freeman, Nahum 
Cross, Obadiah Dunham, Zachariah Fifield, Jeremiah and Bathsheba Ham- 
mell, Peleg Brown, Mordecai Jones, Job Barnard, Ebenezer Merrifield, 
Ellithan Marshall, Ruel Starr, Elias and Nathaniel Axe, Abijah Higgins, 
Moses Winslow, Aaron Parks, Achsah Sheffield, Azubah Winslow, V^ashti 
Hixon, Naomi Hawkins, Patience Prosius, Charity White. The list might 
be considerably extended. There were at first but few of foreign birth other 
than British in this community, but it included a student of the famous "Blue 
Coat School" of London (Seffens), a London merchant and literary man 
(Benney), an eminent scholar (Ball), and others of social distinction. 



70 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

oped from a State Seminary opened in 1825) became a Uni- 
versity in 1838. De Pauw (chartered first as Asbury) Uni- 
versity had begun at Greencastle in the preceding year. 
Franklin College (chartered in 1844) had likewise begun as 
an Institute in 1837. 

While David Wallace was Governor, the Battle Ground 
of Tippecanoe leaped into National fame through the nomina- 
tion (by the first Whig national convention) of General Wil- 
liam Henry Harrison for the Presidency, in 1840. 

Governor Wallace issued the first Proclamation of a 
Thanksgiving Day in Indiana, and Governor William H. 
Seward issued the first in the State of New York. This holi- 
day had been previously limited to New England. In the time 
of President Lincoln it became a national observance. 

Governor Wallace was not renominated by the Whig State 
Convention in 1840, and he served for but a single term. Later, 
when he was a member of Congress, he supported an appro- 
priation for the construction of an experimental line to test 
the "magnetic telegraph" of Professor S. F. B. Morse. This 
fact cost him many votes in his district, but he could well 
afiford to lose them in such a cause. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE DECADE OF THE "FORTIES" 

Samuel Bigger was chosen Governor in the fall of 1840. 
He was a classical scholar, and had been a member of the 
General Assembly and a judge. He could do little to relieve 
the deplorable financial situation of the State. Maurice 
Thompson says "The State had in hand, at that time, the fol- 
lowing improvements: the Wabash Canal, the Erie Canal, 
the Cross-Cut Canal at Terre Haute, the Whitewater Canal, 



THE DECIDE OF THE "lORTIES" 71 

the Central Canals, the Erie and Michigan Canal, the Madi- 
son and Indianapolis Railroad, the Indianapolis and LaFayctte 
Turnpike, the New Albany and Vincennes Turnpike, the 
Jeffersonville and Crawfordsville Road, and a scheme for the 
improvement of the Wabash Rapids jointly with the State of 
Illinois. The entire State debt in 1841 was over eighteen 
million dollars." 

The treasury notes issued by the State bore interest, and 
were eventually redeemed; but since they now circulated at a 
ruinous discount, they were spoken of with contempt as "red 
dog" currency, the name having reference to the red ink used 
in the printing, and to a picture which the bills bore. 

Bank notes, issued often by banks at a great distance away, 
and liable to great fluctuation in value, came to be called 
"wildcat" money. 

Pictures of life in Indiana in this period are to be found 
in Edward Eggleston's Roxy and The End of the World. 

The Prigg decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, in 1842, rendered practically inoperative the old Fugi- 
tive Slave Law of Washington's time, though there was no 
new law of the kind to take its place until 1850. This was a 
decision of which every student of American history should 
learn, since it makes clear the relations of the State and Na- 
tional Governments. Just as the State Government has no 
control over an ofiice created by Federal law, so the Congress 
has no control over an ofiice created by State law. Under the 
old Fugitive Slave Law, county and city officers and all judges 
were required to return fugitive slaves; for this principle had 
not been clearly understood. By the Prigg decision only the 
Federal officers included in the old law (the few judges of 
Federal Courts) could be directed by Congress to do this, 
although new and additional Federal offices might be created 
for the purpose. 

As a result, slaves escaping into the North could be aided 
to reach Canada before a proper officer (necessarily a Federal 
Judge) could be found to prevent this. Secret lines of 



73 



THE PERIOD Of STATEHOOD 



philanthropic aid to fugitive slaves had been formed. Hiding 
places on the way were called "stations" on the "Underground 
Railroad." The number and activity of these were now greatly 
increased. Among the "stations" in Indiana were Westfield 
(now Fountain City) in Wayne County, Salem, Columbus, 
Greensburg, Bloomingdale, and Richmond. Even in the 
larger cities, Indianapolis, Evansville, Jeffersonville, Madison 
and LaFayette, there were "stations," though the risk of dis- 
covery was great. Away up in the northern part of Porter 
County was Hagerman, which aided many a poor slave in his 
escape to the "station" at Kalamazoo, Mich. 

The necessity for secrecy, to avoid the penalties for this 
Christian work, was such that a record of it could not be 
written at the time. It is now an interesting and well-con- 
firmed tradition. 

The time was ©ne of deep religious interest, and denomi- 
national strife was bitter. Governor Bigger, a strong Presby- 
terian, had once opposed the wishes of the Methodists to have 
a proportionate representation in the young State University, 
at Bloomington, and was declared to have remarked that the 
Methodist Church did not require an educated ministry. The 
Methodists, on the other hand, declared that they, as a society, 
had had their very origin in the greatest of all Universities, — 
that of Oxford, — and that they would establish one of their 
own, in Indiana. This they had begun in a small way in 
Greencastle (De Pauw University) in 1837, and now it was 
growing marvelously. 

The alleged remark of the Governor* was widely repeated 
during his term, and he was defeated in 1843 by James Whit- 
comb, a Methodist and a Democrat, who was one of the ablest 
statesmen the State has known. 

Governor Whitcomb arranged for turning over the Wabash 



*It is easy to see that such a remark might be, in its intent, a high com- 
pliment to the effectiveness of Methodist preaching even under unfavorable 
circumstances, or merely a piece of innocent humor, or both together. Rut 



TliL Di:CADL OF THE "FORTIES" 73 

and Erie Canal in liquidation of half of the State's gigantic 
debt, and for taking up the other half by the issuing of bonds 
bearing a low rate of interest. 

The first railway constructed in Indiana connected Madi- 
son with the capital. On its embankment, on the Fourth of 
July, 1843, a picnic "coach,'' drawn by mules, ran from Shel- 
byville on wooden rails (which were laid for this purpose) to 
the distance of a mile and a quarter. This is remembered in 
local legend as John Walker's Railway. On the first day of 
October, 1847, the first railway train reached Indianapolis. 
The lines of steam raihvays in Indiana now, if extended in one 
line, would reach about one-third of the way around the w^orld 
at the Equator; and there is a very large aggregate of trolley 
lines. 

The growing illiteracy in Indiana was now really alarming. 
An earnest reformer (who proved, eventually, to be Professor 
Caleb Mills, of Wabash College), taking the name of "One of 
the People," presented a "Message" on the subject to the Gen- 
eral Assembly of 1846, and to those of the next three years. 
Something more than temporary legislation was needed to 
guarantee an efficient school system. 

In Governor Whitcomb's period of office, and by his advice, 
benevolent and reformatory institutions were established by 
the State, and the school law was greatly improved. 

Governor Whitcomb was elected to the Senate in 1849, 
near the end of his term of office; and in the interval its duties 
devolved on Paris C. Dunning, of Bloomington, who was 
destined to be brought again into prominence in later years, 
as President of the State Senate in the General Assembly of 
1863. 

Governor Whitcomb's essay on the tariff, written in 1843, 
w^as so able an exposition of the principles of political economy 
that it was reproduced entire as a political campaign docu- 
ment nearly four decades later, in 1882. Governor Whitcomb 

it acquired, by repetition, a sarcastic significance probably never intended by 
the cultured Governor. 



74 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

was a broad scholar, and retained his studious habits through 
life. As Commissioner of the General Land Office, at Wash- 
ington, for many years, he found his knowledge of French 
and of Spanish very serviceable to him, since he needed no 
interpreter for documents written in these languages. 

He collected a notable library of works in various lan- 
guages and on all subjects, and left this, by bequest, to De 
Pauw University. The universality of his scholarship, 
and the astonishing variety of his studies, caused the criticism 
that his library was "ill-assorted and disjointed." He knew 
little of the narrowness of the specialist of our time. Governor 
Whitcomb's only daughter became the wife of Claude Matth- 
ews, whose name, in a later generation, was to appear in the 
roll of Governors of Indiana. 

In 1844 the University of Notre Dame, at South Bend, 
one of the great institutions of the Catholics in America, was 
chartered, and opened its doors. 

In the time of Governor Whitcomb came the Mexican 
War (1846-8), in which Indiana soldiers participated. 
Indiana's part in that conflict is related in a separate chapter. 

In 1847-8, John W. Davis, an Indiana man, held the very 
important post of Speaker of the House of Representatives at 
Washington, and was thus able to direct much of the legisla- 
tion in that critical period of war and annexation. 

In 1849 Joseph A. Wright, a Democrat, was chosen to be 
the last Governor of the State under the old Constitution. He 
was a Pennsylvanian by birth, and was the first Indiana Gover- 
nor to be educated at our State University. 



lADI.lA I L\ THE MEXICAN IV.IR 75 



CHAPTER XVII 
INDIANA IN THE MEXICAN WAR 

It is a legend of southeastern Indiana that the vanity of a 
barefoot farm laborer brought on the Mexican War, with all 
its consequences, including the War of Secession. 

This man, having no boots to wear, and being indifferent 
as to politics, had decided to spend the day on the farm, and 
not to vote. A candidate for the General Assembly, learning 
of this at the last moment, took ofif his own boots at the polling 
place and walked about in his socks, while a messenger bore 
the footgear at hot speed to the farm, and brought in the voter, 
whom the boots chanced to fit, and to whom the satisfaction of 
riding in a carriage and wearing a pair of costly boots at the 
polls made a strong appeal. That one vote turned the evenly- 
balanced scale in the legislative district, and elected the sock- 
foot man to the General Assembly of 1842. His one vote, in 
the legislative session, turned the scale and elected Albert S. 
Hannegan to the U. S. Senate. Senator Hannegan's one vote, 
in 1845, turned the scale and secured the admission of Texas, 
which caused the war.* 



*Mr. Hannegan was elected to the Senate in 1842 by a vote of 76 mem- 
bers of the General Assembly, against 74. The loss of a single vote would 
have caused a tie, and defeated his election. Texas was admitted by a joint 
resolution of Congress in 1845, the vote in the Senate being 27 to 25. The 
change of a single vote would have defeated the measure by causing a tie, 
for there was then no Vice-President to give a deciding vote. The record of 
the Indiana legislative district vote by which the farm laborer turned the 
scale may not now be preserved, but investigations in this Centennial year may 
bring it to light. No voter should cast his ballot lightly, since great conse- 
quences, all unforeseen, may grow out of it. 



76 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

When the Mexican War began, in 1846, the scholarly and 
resolute James Whitcomb was Governor of the State. The 
Government made demand upon Indiana for five regiments. 
Eight regiments, and men to more than that number, responded 
to the call; for the war enthusiasm was general in Indiana, 
and Whigs like Henry S. Lane were no less belligerent than 
the most partisan of Democrats. 

Only five of the regiments were accepted, since large armies 
were not needed. The quality of the Indiana soldiers was 
high. In the campus of more than one old college in the State 
are trees in the bark of which are cut, high up, the initials of 
students who left their books to take part in the war. Whether 
gathered from the farm or from the activities of the village or 
city, the soldier boys of Indiana proved their worth on the hot 
battlefields of Mexico, where contests were fought against 
appalling odds. 

A crucial test, alike a leadership on the part of the com- 
mander and of heroism on the part of the rank and file, was 
the battle of Buena Vista, on the 23rd of February, in the first 
year of the war (1846), when General Zachary Taylor, con- 
fronted by five times the number of his efifective troops, held 
his admirably-chosen position and routed his assailants. 

So tense was the situation that the slightest blunder or hesi- 
tation in any quarter might end in the utter destruction of the 
army. 

Most unfortunately, the 2nd Indiana regiment in this bat- 
tle was ordered by its Colonel to fall back; and the men, of 
course, obeyed the order. Whether this order was given from 
a lack of judgment on the Colonel's part, or whether it was 
the result of cowardice, is not known. Certainly the responsi- 
bility rests with him. But the obloquy which it brought upon 
the name of Indiana was most exasperating to every citizen of 
the State. 

In this battle Jefiferson Davis, the son-in-law of General 
Taylor, acquitted himself with great gallantry, being quick, 
thoughtful, and daring, and aided in compensating for the 



INDI.hS'.l I\ THE MEXIC.IN WAR 77 

dangerous retreat. After the battle the proud old General, 
who had been estranged from his son-in-law hitherto, greeted 
him warmly, and was much influenced by the passionate re- 
proaches hurled against the "2nd Indiana." 

The anonymous but probably authentic book "Battles of 
Mexico" (1848) says: 

"The action was so warm that the Second Indiana regiment 
broke, not being able to stand against such a fire, and left the 
artillery unprotected. Thus Captain O'Brien [of the Artil- 
lery] retired, leaving one of his pieces [cannon], at which 
every man and horse was either killed or wounded." 

General Taylor's official report censured "those who fled 
ingloriously," and the phrase was popularly understood to refer 
particularly to the Indiana soldiers who fell back under such a 
fire, at the command of their Colonel. 

When the soldiers of Taylor's army returned to the United 
States, a great crowd of angry and contemptuous men at the 
wharf in New Orleans greeted the Indiana soldiers' ship with 
cries of "Fugitives! Fugitives!" 

As a matter of fact, another Indiana regiment was the 
only regiment that did not once take a backward step in the 
whole days' fighting. 

It was felt that the record in the War Department at 
Washington should be explained and made specific; but this 
could not be done under the Polk administration. At the next 
election, in 1848, lo! to behold, Zachary Taylor himself was 
chosen President. 

Four years passed; and in the next administration (that of 
President Franklin Pierce), Jefiferson Davis himself was 
Secretary of War! 

The offensive and generally-misapplied words in the re- 
port of the Battle of Buena Vista remained (and still remain) 
without qualification or explanation. But they were not soon 
forgotten. 

In the War of Secession, the South, misled by long-un- 
contradicted assertion, expected little from Indiana troops. 



78 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

Doubtless a desire to retrieve a reputation which had suffered 
from injustice animated the men of Indiana to do their best; 
and the State has the proud distinction of a record of readi- 
ness, bravery, and brilliant service perhaps unequaled, cer- 
tainly unsurpassed, by that of any other State that took part 
in the conflict. 



CHAPTER XIX 



THE DECADE OF THE "FIFTIES" 



The time had come in the growth and development of the 
State for preparing a new organic law; and as a result of 
earnest urging by the Governor, a Constitutional Convention 
was held in Indianapolis from October 7, 1850 to February 10, 
1851. The work of the Convention proved satisfactory, and 
the new Constitution was overwhelmingly ratified by the 
people. 

It provided for biennial (instead of annual) meetings of the 
General Assembly; made the offices of Secretary, Treasurer, 
and Auditor of State and the Judges of the Supreme Court, 
elective, rather than appointive; prohibited special lawmak- 
ing of a local nature; prohibited the State from owning any 
stock in a bank or corporation; provided for the creation of 
corporations under a general statute; and in many other ways 
proved an exemplary organic law. 

A new and comprehensive School Law was enacted June 
14, 1852, when a final legislative "Message" was received from 
"One of the People," who had made an effective appeal to the 
Constitution makers. 

While the cause of popular education was safeguarded in 
the new Constitution, the property rights of married women 



THE DECADE OF THE "FIFTIES" 79 

were not. Robert Dale Owen, the radical reformer, had 
waged a battle in the General Assembly for reform in this 
matter as early as 1837, and had pleaded with the Constitu- 
tional Convention to no purpose. Continuing his fight in all 
places and in all seasons, he lived to see secured the reform 
so long desired; and Indiana proudly led in securing to mar- 
ried women "the right to their own." 

Governor Wright sent as Indiana's contribution to the 
Washington Monument a block of Indiana stone bearing an 
inscription expressing intense Union sentiment. Later (in the 
war time), he sustained the President, and was appointed to 
finish the term of Jesse D. Bright in the Senate; still later, to 
be Minister to Prussia, where he enjoyed an intimate friend- 
ship with Baron von Humboldt. He died in Berlin. 

During the period of this administration Jesse D. Bright 
was first in the order of succession to the Presidency, being 
President of the Senate; for Vice-President William R. King, 
elected with Franklin Pierce in 1852, did not live to preside 
over the Senate. Senator Bright was a slaveholder owning a 
plantation in Kentucky, and had but a shadowy residence in 
this State, though representing it in the Senate for sixteen 
years. He was expelled from the Senate in 1861. 

Governor Wright was chosen, in 1852, to be the first Gov- 
ernor under the new Constitution, as he had been the last under 
the old one. And thus he served, in all, through a period of 
seven years. George W. Julian, of Indiana, was the Free Soil 
candidate for Vice-President in 1852. 

Governor Wright was a strong advocate of improvement 
in agriculture, and aided in establishing the State Board of 
Agriculture (of which he was the first President) and the 
State Agricultural Society. He was the inveterate foe of irre- 
sponsible or doubtful banks, and was known as the "anti-bank" 
Governor. To this day the State has sufifered from disregard 
of a proper restriction of banking. 

In 1856 the Democrats elected Ashbel P. Willard Gover- 
nor. He was the first Governor to die in ofhce; he passed 



8o THE PERIOD OF ST.lTEIiOOD 

away at the new city of St. Paul, Minn., and was succeeded by 
Abram A. Hammond, of Brookville, who finished the term. 

The Democratic party in the State and Nation was rent 
asunder as the result of the Kansas-Nebraska measure of 1854 
and the Dred Scott Decision of 1857. The John Brown Raid 
of 1859 added to the passions of the hour, and the Nation was 
drifting rapidly to war between the sections of the North and 
the South. 

Both State and Nation entered upon a new era with the 
result of the elections of 1860, when the new Republican party 
swept the State and triumphed in the country at large. 



CHAPTER XX 
INDIANA IN THE WAR OF SECESSION 

In the fall of 1860, when a great war for the Union was 
impending, Col. Henry S. Lane and Judge Oliver P. Mor- 
ton, were elected, respectively. Governor and Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of Indiana. They were candidates of the Republican 
party, which had come into existence as a national organiza- 
tion four years before by a fusion of the various elements op- 
posed to the extension of slavery. "Of strange, discordant, 
sometimes hostile elements," said Abraham Lincoln, "we 
gathered from the four winds." 

Colonel Lane had been a Whig, and Judge Morton a 
Democrat. Colonel Lane was a popular speaker, who could 
captivate a crowd with his wit and humor, and win voters. 
Judge Morton was the man for the hour in the great crisis. 
Irresistible in argument, inflexible in purpose, he was devoid 
of humor, and even his strong sympathy and tenderness were 
hidden beneath his judicial exterior. 



INDIANA IN THE WAR OF SECESSION 8i 

Governor Lane served for two days only. On the sixteenth 
of January, 1861, he was chosen for the Senate by the General 
Assembly, or Legislature, and the Lieutenant-Governor suc- 
ceeded to his place in the Governor's chair. This had been 
planned before the fall election. 

Mr. Lincoln, who had been elected President, would not 
enter upon his duties until the fourth of March; and in the 
interval he felt compelled to remain silent. Governor Mor- 
ton, by official correspondence and otherwise, could and did 
assert continually the inviolability of the Union, in terms that 
no one could misunderstand. 

Even after the inauguration of President Lincoln, and after 
some of the Southern States had seceded, there was a period 
of w^atchful waiting until the South should strike the first 
blow. On the twelfth of April the long-dreaded conflict in 
arms began, with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, in the 
harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. 

Governor Morton instantly declared to the General As- 
sembly of Indiana, "We have passed from the field of argu- 
ment to the solemn fact of war." 

Hitherto the careful interpreter of laws, he became the 
ruling spirit of the war, in all the West, seeing in the crisis a 
supreme necessity which rises above the letter of laws and of 
constitutions. He must be more than Governor of Indiana if 
the Union was to be preserved. He must not merely comply 
with the requisitions made upon him by the Federal Govern- 
ment, and call upon it for supplies, as any loyal Governor 
would do. He must assume a responsibility without precedent. 
He must anticipate and go beyond the requisitions, obtain sup- 
plies independently, disregard State lines, and even give ad- 
vance direction and advice to the Federal Government as to 
the conduct of the war. He must be a leader of men, guided 
by a supreme purpose, and overcoming every obstacle for the 
attainment of the great end, the preser\^ation of the Union. 
This must be understood if we would understand the history 
of our State relating to the great crisis. 



82 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

There was less than fifteen thousand dollars in the State 
Treasury. The state possessed practically no arms or army 
supplies. Its credit was not of the best. The Federal Govern- 
ment was far away, and in no wise prepared to meet the emer- 
gency. 

On the fifteenth of April the President issued his call for 
troops; but before it was received, on the same day, Governor 
Morton telegraphed to him an offer of ten thousand men. The 
State's quota under the call was six regiments (of 774 men 
each) ; and in one week's time more than twelve thousand men 
were ready, and were offered for the defense of Washington. 
Not being needed there, the surplus regiments were held in 
readiness for future use, and were thoroughly drilled. 

The Government at Washington was deficient in military 
supplies. Governor Morton sent to Europe Robert Dale 
Owen, a man of unimpeachable honor and a fine mechanician, 
to purchase for the State the best of guns, ini amount nearly 
sufficient to arm forty of the regiments of that day. 

In a small way, a State Arsenal was begun. At least, 
ammunition could be prepared in it. There were few kinds of 
employment open for women at that time; but the wives and 
daughters of soldiers could make cartridges, and this work was 
given to them. Gunsmiths could repair old weapons, and 
render them fit for service. The State Arsenal, with its modest 
equipment, grew into great importance until its final transfer 
to the Nation. 

The principal work of the first year of the war was to hold 
the wavering Border States. Soldiers from Indiana were 
prominent in saving West Virginia to the Union. 

In 1861 Governor Morton went to New York, and bought 
twenty-nine thousand overcoats for Indiana soldiers in the 
Federal service who were in need of them. 

In September, 1862, Cincinnati was in great peril. The 
Confederates, advancing rapidly through Kentucky, were bent 
upon seizing this city and carrying the war into the North. 
Neither the State nor the Nation could act in time to save it. 



INDIAN.I IN THE IVAR OF SECESSION 83 

The appeal of the city came to Governor Morton. Instantly 
he commandeered the engines and cars of the railways at the 
old Union Depot at Indianapolis; likewise the drays and the 
farm wagons in the city, to load the trains with guns and 
ammunition. Going himself, with two regiments, he directed 
the defense. The citizens of the great and wealthy Ohio city 
were impressed to defend it by means of earthworks erected on 
the Kentucky side of the river, and the plans of the Confeder- 
ates were efifectually overturned by the preparations made. 

To hold Kentucky in the Union by supporting the over- 
awed and endangered Union element in that State had been 
the special task of Governor Morton. From the beginning, 
when the Kentucky Unionists had operated from Jefferson- 
ville, on the Indiana side of the river, Governor Morton had 
encouraged and defended them. Repeatedly, in the war, did 
he send regiments to Kentucky. Frankfort was saved, Lex- 
ington was saved, Louisville was saved, as Cincinnati was, 
and the recruiting and supply station in lower Kentucky was 
broken up, by the prompt action of Indiana soldiers. 

In 1862, when many thousands of men were withdrawn 
from the State, and depression had followed the early enthusi- 
asm of the w^ar, a General Assembly opposed to the Governor 
and to the prolongation of the conflict was chosen in the fall 
election. In the two remaining years of the war, the Governor 
stood alone. The General Assembly sought to take from him 
the supreme power in military aflairs, and adjourned without 
making any appropriation. Not a dollar could the Governor 
draw from the State Treasury; and if the interest on the 
war debt should be in default, the State's financial credit would 
be ruined. 

With astonishing success, but without any warrant of law 
(except the law of necessity), the Governor established a 
"Bureau of Finance" in his own office, borrowed a million dol- 
lars without security (for he owned little or no property), 
arranged for the payment of the interest on the State debt, 
and disbursed money at will, governing without the aid of a 



84 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

Legislature (which could not be reassembled except upon his 
call). 

His situation now was one of peculiar peril; for next in 
succession to the Governor's office, in the event of his death, 
stood the President of the State Senate, the choice of the Oppo- 
sition. And now came to the supreme test of his ability to 
meet issues. 

In opposition to the Governor and to the war, a secret 
society was formed. Secret political organization was not 
new. The "Knownothings" (so called because of their con- 
cealment of what they knew of their party) had played a part 
in the Presidential election of 1856; and while secrecy in poli- 
tics was the subject of much censure, it was not necessarily 
criminal or disloyal. 

The new organization, however, was disloyal at the top, 
its chief officers planning treason to the State and Nation, 
though thousands of the citizens admitted to its lower degrees 
doubtless regarded it merely as a means of constitutional and 
legitimate political action. The plans of the leaders, as after- 
wards disclosed, contemplated the overthrow of the Governor, 
the liberation of Confederate prisoners held in Indianapolis 
and in Chicago (who were to co-operate with the anti-Morton 
men in Indiana), the seizure of the Arsenal, and the incursion 
of Confederates from Kentucky, to the end that the war should 
cease. 

Governor Morton was advised of the treason hatching 
by day and by night. His spies informed him daily of the 
progress of the plot. The time came to strike. It would be 
folly to invoke grand juries and the slow and uncertain proc- 
esses of courts. The Governor ordered the seizure of the 
leaders, and appointed a Military Commission to try them. 
At its head was General Silas Colgrove, a grim veteran who 
had distinguished himself as one of the most daring and irre- 
sistible cavalry leaders of the war. 

The blow was struck in the very moment of fate. Of the 
four leaders, one escaped; but the other three were condemned 



INDIANA IN THE IV A R OF SECESSION 85 

to death,* and terror struck the hearts of all who had been 
beguiled into toying with covert treason. A Military Com- 
mission had not been dreamt of. It was beyond all civil law, 
and the Governor and his course of action were now secure. 
The effect of the exposures brought about by the Commission's 
investigations was to unite loyal men in the support of the 
Union cause as never before. In the same year, Morton was 
elected to serve as Governor. Heretofore he had deemed 
himself Acting Governor, having succeeded to the office with- 
out being elected to it. While the State Constitution prohib- 
its the election of any person to the Governor's office for two 
consecutive terms, that limitation was held not to apply in 
this case. 

It would require a library to tell the story of Indiana's 
part in the War of Secession. It is the mature judgment of 
many that the Union could not have been saved had its Presi- 
dent been a man of different type from Lincoln — had he been 
slower or more rapid, stronger or weaker, more daring or less 
daring. President Lincoln proved to be the man for his time. 
Likewise we may well believe that the Union could not have 
been saved with a man materially different from Oliver P. 
Morton in the West, to give executive direction where the 
need was greatest, when the scale was hung in even balance. 

The story of the war from the standpoint of the West may 
yet be written in its fullness; and when it shall be so written, 
without detraction from the noble work of other war Govern- 
ors and other States, Governor Morton will be seen as the cen- 
tral figure in the Great Northwest and on the difficult and 
dangerous border; and the Indiana of the "sixties," the small- 
est in area of all the Western States, with its resources unde- 
veloped, its forests largely uncleared, its swamps as yet un- 
drained, its wealth in money small, will be shown to have con- 
tributed amazingly to the attainment of the great end. 

Of Indiana men in the Federal Government, Caleb B. 

*On the intercession of Governor Morton, their lives were spared by 
President Johnson. 



86 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

Smith (1861) and John P. Usher (1863) served successively 
as Secretary of the Interior, and Hugh McCuUoch (1865) 
as Secretary of the Treasury. 

A knowledge of Indiana's war history gives new interest 
and significance to the Soldiers' Monument on the Governor's 
Circle in Indianapolis. The importance of the subject will 
justify a careful study of the brief specific summary which 
follows. 



CHAPTER XXI 
BRIEF SUMMARY OF INDIANA'S PART IN THE WAR 

The Regiments. Indiana furnished 129 regiments 
of infantry, thirteen of cavalry and one of heavy artillery; 
also twenty-six batteries of light artillery, and various inde- 
pendent companies and parts of such companies. The first 
regiment was numbered the Sixth, out of respect for the five 
regiments that served in the Mexican war. The last organ- 
ized was the One-hundred-and-fifty-sixth. The artillery, cav- 
alry, etc., were numbered separately. Not included in these 
WTre six companies of Colored troops. 

Union Soldiers. The troops furnished by the State 
numbered, in the aggregate, 208,367; but this number in- 
cludes 11,718 re-enlisted veterans. On October 6, 1862, 3,003 
were drafted through an error of the War Department, while 
the quota of troops due from Indiana was already more than 
filled by volunteers. Drafts were also conducted in Septem- 
ber and October, 1864, and in March, 1865, an aggregate of 
14,900 troops were thus secured. 



liRlll SUMMARY 01 LXDI.lN.l'S PART IN THE WAR 87 

Supplies Advanced. The Federal government was at 
first unable to provide the armies with arms, ammunition, 
clothing, etc. The State voted at the outset $1,000,000 for 
the enlistment, maintaining, and subsisting of troops, $.^00,000 
for arms and ammunition, and $100,000 for military contin- 
gencies. 

Supply of Arms and Ammunition. The State agent 
purchased from English manufactories 30,000 rifles, with 
a large amount of side arms. A State Arsenal was begun 
in a small way on April 27, 1861, and developed into an impor- 
tant source of ammunition supplies, the number of persons 
employed in it eventually reaching 600. An Arsenal was 
commenced by the Federal Government in 1863. 

Military Prisons. Camp Morton, at the State capital, 
became a prison for Confederate soldiers on the 22nd 
of February, 1862, receiving on that day 3,700 prisoners of 
war. About 800 were quartered at Terre Haute, and a similar 
number at LaFayette; but these were soon removed to Camp 
Morton to remain with the others. Here the number w^as 
augmented, as the war continued, until it reached 6,000. 

Services of the Militia. In addition to the regular 
soldiers, whose number has been given, there were not less 
than 50,000 militia called into service at various times to repel 
raids of Confederates and defend our southern border. 

Confederate Raids. The State was invaded three dif- 
ferent times. 

The Seizure of Newbern. On July 17, 1862, Captain 
A. R. Johnson, with thirty-one men, crossed the Ohio and 
captured Newbern, in Warrick County, and seized a store 
of arms and hospital and commissary supplies, which had been 
left unguarded in the Union soldiers' hospital at the place. 
Before the militia could be called out, the marauders escaped 
back into Kentucky. 

HiNES's Raid. On the 17th of June, 1863, Captain 
F. H. Hines, with sixty-two Confederates, crossed the river 



88 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

and entered Perry County, above Cannelton, and made his 
way towards Paoli. On the 19th he appeared at Hardinsburg, 
in Washington County. Later in the day Hines was over- 
taken by a company of militia and minute men, while attempt- 
ing to ford the Ohio above Leavenworth, and captured with 
fifty of his followers, a few of the men being killed or drowned. 

Morgan's Raid. On the 8th of July, 1863, General 
John Morgan crossed the Ohio at Mauckport, Harrison 
County, with a cavalry force of about three thousand men, 
and entered upon his celebrated raid. His route lay through 
Harrison, Washington, Scott, Jennings, Ripley, and Dearborn 
Counties. He passed through Corydon, Salem, Vernon, Ver- 
sailles, Osgood, and Harrison, with several light skirmishes, 
plundering the towns and all the farms within reach along 
the line, and sometimes burning bridges and buildings. He 
escaped into Ohio on the 13th, though hotly pursued through 
much of the raid by a large force of militia. 

Assistance to Other States. Besides performing the 
stated duties of his office, Governor Morton took measures 
looking to the defense of the entire western Border. He 
became known as "The Clubbed Right Arm of the Govern- 
ment." 

On the 6th of September, 1862, when Cincinnati was en- 
dangered. Governor Morton sent two regiments and a large 
supply of ammunition, and followed in person to aid and 
direct the work of defense. About twenty thousand men had 
been sent into Kentucky, with wonderful despatch, in August. 

On the 22nd of September, when General Bragg demanded 
the surrender of Louisville, Governor Morton went in person, 
with his stafif, to that city to plan the defense. On the 8th of 
June, following, he sent a regiment to aid in protecting 
Louisville. 

On the 2nd of May, 1864, he sent two regiments to the aid 
of Lexington, Ky., and within two days, two additional 
regiments. 

On the 19th of August, 1864, a force of Indiana troops 



BRIEF SUMMARY OF INDIANA'S PART IN THE WAR 89 

moved upon the Confederate recruiting camp at Morganfield, 
Ky., and dispersed the enemy. 

In addition to all this, large forces of militia were sta- 
tioned in various parts of our southern border, ready to repair, 
if needed, to points beyond the limits of the State; and thus 
they protected our neighboring States. 

Financial Measures. On the failure of the appropria- 
tion bill of 1863, the Governor organized, on his own 
responsibility and with no authority of law, a "Bureau of 
Finance" and received from individuals and corporations vol- 
untary contributions and loans amounting to more than a mil- 
lion dollars, 

By personal efforts he secured from a New York banking 
house an advance sufficient to pay the interest on the State's 
war debt. 

Consultations of Executives. In May, 1862, after the 
battle of Shiloh, Governor Morton met the Governors of sev- 
eral of the northwestern States at Pittsburg Landing. On 
the twenty-seventh of April, 1864, he held at Indianapolis 
another consultation, at which were present the Executives 
of Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Iowa. At both of these 
gatherings measures were concerted for promoting the cause 
of the Union. 

The story of Indiana in the war has no counterpart in 
American history. There was but one Governor Morton. The 
"Clubbed Right Arm of the Government" on the difficult 
western Border seemed to wield the hammer of Thor, "Mjel- 
ner the mighty." His brain seemed the brain of a Jove. To the 
would-be assassins who pursued him he w^as as elusive as a 
Proteus. With the doors of the State Treasury closed, and 
with the aggressively Union cause in Indiana hanging by a 
single life (for in the event of his death his successor would 
have been of the Opposition), he shut his eyes to State lines, 
Constitutions, and laws; raised and disbursed money to carry 
on his work in his own way; sent troops or commanded in 
person wherever the need was greatest; called other Governors 



90 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

into consultation, and secured their ratification of his plans; 
advised the Government at Washington what to do in each 
great crisis — and turned the scale of the Union Cause. 

Indiana gave the first response to the President's call for 
troops; was the first to put troops in the field; kept soldiers in 
advance of calls and excess of quota; never failed to protect 
sister States when aid was needed, Indiana soldiers were the 
first to capture field officers of the Confederates. Governor 
Morton devised the "hundred-day" scheme of enlistment, and 
other historic measures for armament. He established his 
''Arsenal," commandeered railway trains when necessary, 
bought out whole stocks from dealers in clothing which the 
soldiers needed, and did many other things in the same aston- 
ishing way in which he manufactured his "Bureau of 
Finance," to take the place of a State Treasury. His "Military 
Commission," for instance, utterly lawless in the eyes of the 
Supreme Court of the Nation, was to* him a necessity of the 
hour, and that was to him its all-sufficient excuse for being. 
No other Governor in the Nation occupied a position of such 
perilous opportunity as his. He stands alone in having braved 
the peril and saved the Union cause. In all this period he was 
never worth $10,000 — that wonderful man who could borrow 
a million without even the color of law. 



THE LIST II.ILF-CENTIRY 



CHAPTER XXII 
THE LAST HALF-CENTURY 

From the close of the War of Secession the progress of 
Indiana has been continuous and marvelous in all lines of 
advancement. At times it has been steady, and at times it 
has been by leaps and bounds. Its record in detail is accessible 
without necessity for painstaking and difficult research, and 
it is within the recollection of great numbers of people now 
living. It is therefore to be presented here only in the sim- 
plest outline. 

Governor Morton was chosen to the Senate in 1867, and 
was succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor Conrad Baker, who in 
1868 was elected to be his own successor, and therefore, like 
Governor Morton, served about six years. 

Schuyler Colfax of Indiana was elected Vice-President 
in the same year, 1868. From 1863 he had been Speaker 
of the House of Representatives, at Washington. Called now 
to preside over the Senate, he rounded out an unmatched par- 
liamentary career. 

Following the war there was a great expansion of the 
manufactures of Indiana, and the natural resources of the 
State were developed as never before. Indiana wagons were 
soon to be found in many foreign lands. The achievements 
in glass making were phenomenal. "Block" coal and superior 
building stone were supplied to an ever-broadening market. 

The period of Reconstruction was a stormy one, the old- 
time partisanship being intensified by memories of the strug- 
gle. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution 
was ratified by the General Assembly in 1869, but only against 



92 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

intense opposition, and through the firmness of the President 
of the State Senate. 

In the following year the State Normal School was opened 
at Terre Haute. 

In 1872 Thomas A. Hendricks was elected Governor, being 
the first Democrat chosen for that office in any Northern State 
after the war. He was a nephew of Governor William Hend- 
ricks. 

The State Constitution was amended in 1873 by the addi- 
tion of Section 7 to Article X (Finance), prohibiting any 
recognition of the State's liability for the old canal stock of 
the "forties." 

Governor Hendricks' term was memorable for the general 
agitation of reform in the matter of dealing with the evil of 
liquors and narcotics. Women were conspicuous in urging 
the reform, and organized a "crusade" of prayer and of 
personal appeal. 

Valparaiso University, now ranking among the great uni- 
versities of the world, opened its doors as a "Normal School" 
in 1873, and grew with amazing rapidity. 

The supervision of rural schools began with the establish- 
ment of the office of County Superintendent, in the same 
year. 

Purdue University, the State Agricultural and Mechanical 
College, opened in the following year. 

Governor Hendricks' successor was James D. Williams, 
the first "farmer Governor," a Democrat of long official serv- 
ice. He was elected in 1876, defeating General Benjamin 
Harrison. In the memorable campaign of that year Governor 
Hendricks was the Democratic candidate for the Vice-Presi- 
dency. 

In the following year the State undertook the construction 
of a magnificent Capitol, to be a marvel of economy and honest 
workmanship and to cost only two millions of dollars. The 
cost eventually exceeded this amount; but the edifice (which 
was completed in ten years) is a model of careful and con- 



THE LAST HALF-CENTURY 93 

scientious construction. The almost-even balancing of the 
parties, and their occasional alternations of success within this 
period of its completion, were fortunate in that each party was 
kept upon its best behavior, and under the strictest scrutiny 
by all the voters. 

In 1877 Michael C Kerr, of Indiana, was chosen to the 
Speakership of the House of Representatives at Washington, 
but was stricken wnth mortal illness and soon passed away. 
Richard W. Thompson, an Indiana man, was Secretary of 
the Navy in this Administrative period. 

Governor Williams died in 1880, and his term was com- 
pleted by the Lieutenant-Governor, Isaac P. Gray. 

In 1880 the scholarly and admired Albert G. Porter, later 
minister to the court of Rome, was elected Governor, in a 
Republican success. 

In 1881 the State Constitution was amended by the adop- 
tion of an article relating to Political and Municipal Corpora- 
tions, and limiting their power to contract indebtedness. This 
was numbered XIII, replacing an obsolete article relating to 
Negroes and Mulattoes, which was stricken out at this time. 

A bronze statue of Oliver P. Morton, the Great War 
Governor, unveiled upon the Governor's Circle in 1883, was 
the beginning of a general adornment of the capital with 
effigies of Indiana's illustrious men. 

The observance of Lincoln Day by schools and clubs orig- 
inated in Indiana, ''Lincoln Leaflets'' having been prepared 
for use throughout the State at the first observance, in 1885. 
The State Teachers' Reading Circle of Indiana began at about 
the same time, and speedily took the first rank in numbers 
and in work among organizations of its kind in all the country. 
Almost immediately thereafter, the rural schools were pro- 
vided with graded courses of study. Thus the teachers of the 
rural schools were provided with home studies in the art of 
teaching, and their work was thoroughly systemized. 

In 1884 the Democrats were successful in both State and 
Nation. Isaac P. Gray, later minister to Mexico, was then 



94 THE PERIOD OF STATEHOOD 

elected, being the only Indiana Governor ever called back to 
the office after an interval. 

In the same year Hugh McCulloch was recalled by Presi- 
dent Arthur to his old post of Secretary of the Treasury. 
Thomas A. Hendricks was the successful (Democratic) can- 
didate for Vice-President in 1884, but died in the fall of the 
following year. 

As the new Capitol drew near to completion, the State 
began the erection of a noble Soldiers Monument upon the 
Circle. The construction of a model Union Station in Indian- 
apolis, the great railway center, was a matter of interest 
throughout the country. The capital city took on a new and 
metropolitan aspect. 

The discovery of natural gas and its application to domestic 
and industrial uses wrought a speedy change in the manner of 
life of the people very generally through the State, and ushered 
in an era of unexampled activity and enterprise. 

In 1888 an Indiana man. General Benjamin Harrison, 
grandson of the Hero of Tippecanoe, was chosen to be Presi- 
dent; and General Alvan P. Hovey, a former comrade in 
arms, was elected Governor. Two Indiana men — John W. 
Foster (Secretary of State) and W. H. H. Miller (Attorney- 
General) — were members of the President's cabinet. 

In this term the General Assembly committed Indiana 
to State uniformity of textbooks for use in the schools, causing 
the books to be supplied under contract on the most favorable 
terms. 

Governor Hovey w^as the third to die in office. He was 
succeeded in 1891 by the Lieutenant-Governor, Ira P. Chase. 

Claude Matthews, a second "farmer Governor," a Demo- 
crat, was elected to the office in 1892, when Grover Cleveland 
was called back to the Presidency. General Walter Q. 
Gresham, an Indiana man, was called to be Secretary of State 
in the President's cabinet. 

There was a period of great depression in the business 
world, followinir the general enthusiasm awakened by the 



Tin: L.IST ll.lLr-CESTURY 



95 



Quadricentennial of the discovery of America, ami this was 
felt severely in Indiana. 

In 1896 the Republicans were successful in State and Na- 
tion alike, and James A. Mount was elected Governor. He 
was destined to prove a War Governor, and an able one. 

The Spanish War, which grew out of the misrule of Spain 
in Cuba, began when Congress, on the 22nd of April, 1898, 
adopted resolutions of intervention. On the next day Presi- 
dent William AlcKinley issued his Proclamation calling for 
one hundred and twenty-five thousand volunteers. Indiana 
w^as called upon for four regiments of infantry and for two 
light batteries of artillery. 

The regiments, which were quickly supplied, were num- 
bered the 157th, 158th, l59thand 160th, beginning where the 
numbers of the regiments in the War of Secession left of¥. 
To these must be added another, the 161st; also the 27th and 
28th Batteries, Companies A and B Colored, the 2nd U. S. V. 
Company, and the 14th U. S. Signal Corps Company. Indi- 
ana's record in this war w^as creditable to the character and 
history of the State. 

In 1900 W. T. Durbin, Republican, was elected Governor. 
His successor was J. Frank Hanley, who was elected in 1904, 
at which time Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, was chosen 
Vice-President. 

In 1906 w^as founded the city of Gary (in the extreme 
northwTSt corner of the State), which has had so astonishing 
a grow^th that in its Decennial year (the Centennial year of 
the State) it claims a population of forty thousand. 

In 1908 Thomas Marshall, Democrat, was elected Gov- 
ernor. Four years later he was the candidate for Vice-Presi- 
dent, and was elected. At the same time Indiana chose Sam- 
uel M. Rallston for Governor, and William P. O'Neill for 
Lieutenant-Governor. 



96 .sy;i/£ indi.^na writers 



CHAPTER XXIII 
SOME INDIANA WRITERS 

The large number of the meritorious writers who were 
born or reared in Indiana, or have written their books within 
our borders, is a matter of general comment throughout the 
country. Yet Indiana has never had a "school" of writers, 
and the literary works produced by people of this State are 
widely variant as to style, subject, and department of letters. 
One characteristic, however, they very generally possess in 
common ; that is originality. It is the creative power of genius, 
rather than the exercise of talent, that has rendered Indiana 
authorship conspicuous in American literature. It is no part 
of the purpose here to attempt either an extended list of Indi- 
ana writers or a critical judgment of their relative merits, but 
to make the briefest note of the more conspicuous of them. 

The list begins with that famous French traveler and 
author, the Count de Volney, who in 1796 was for ten days 
the guest of a leading citizen of Vincennes, and wrote there 
some deeply interesting descriptions and speculations for his 
"View of the Soil and Climate of the United States of Amer- 
ica." The Count de Volney, in French literature, is as 
unique as the Viscount Chateaubriand, whose history-making 
book, was written in the wigwam of an American savage, as 
has been related. 

Only three decades later, Robert Owen's company were in 
possession of the huge Rappite estate at New Harmony, on 
the Wabash, and were turning the "grain fort" into a library 
and museum, where much writing was to be done by the bright 
intellects that gathered in this singularly-blessed intellectual 
center. New Harmony writings were likely to be technical 



SOME INDIANA WRITERS 97 

and fragmentary, appropriate to the laboratory and to the 
Smithsonian Institution, which Mr. Robert Dale Owen was 
instrumental in establishing. 

In 1833 John Finley wrote for the Indianapolis Journal 
his celebrated poem entitled The Hoosier's Nest, which has 
been assumed to describe a pioneer home in the then-remote 
region of Porter County, bearing that name. The popularity 
of the poem, from its quaint picture of frontier life, gave na- 
tional currency to the soubriquet "Hoosier," which seems to 
have been a ludicrous imitation of the Russian hussar (famil- 
iarized by CampbelTs "Pleasures of Hope"), though some 
other origins have been ascribed to the designation. 

Indiana literature in the "forties" had its center in "Rosa- 
bower," at Greencastle, the home of Dr. William C. Larrabee, 
the collegian from "Old Bowdoin," who drew about him here 
a literary circle. 

"Here he builded his Rosabower, 
Marvel of stream and tree and flower; 
Reared in pride a manorial hall, 
Poem of chimne}' and window and wall." 

Doctor Larrabee was Indiana's first Superintendent of 
Public Instruction. Rosabower, Asbury and His Coadjutors, 
and Wesley and His Coadjutors are among his works. A care- 
fully prepared History of Indiana from Its Earliest Explora- 
tion by Europeans by John B. Dillon appeared in 1843. A 
revised edition of this famous book, extended to 637 quarto 
pages, was issued in 1859. A highly meritorious Gazetteer of 
Indiana was issued anonymously in 1850. 

In the "fifties" the tender lyrics of Maria Louisa Chit- 
wood, of Mt. Carmel, in Franklin County (first published by 
George D. Prentice in his newspaper at Louisville), seemed 
to give promise of long life. The Old Still House (of Brook- 
ville) is probably the best remembered of these. 

Dr. Samuel K. Hoshour, a famous educator and minister, 
as the author of the Altisonant Letters, eclipsed all others in 
his quaint style of altisonant writing. Few are the college 



98 SOME INDIAN.] WRITERS 

men, indeed, who can read a dozen lines of his book without 
repeated recourse to a large dictionary. 

The books following the war time included The Soldier of 
Indiana, in two large quarto volumes (1,505 pages), which 
was issued anonymously. 

The decade of the "seventies" was a period of great literary 
activity in Indiana. 

Edward Eggleston, a native of Vevay, in Switzerland 
County, produced a series of novels which not only gave inter- 
esting pictures of Indiana life in his boyhood, but began a new 
style of writing, in which the characters introduce themselves, 
the scenes are portrayed incidentally, and the chapters are 
very brief. The Hoosier Schoolmaster, The End of the World 
and Roxy are racy books, and were universally read. 

George L. Perrow, of Sullivan, achieved but a moderate 
success with his Hoosier Editor. Though the novel possessed 
an excellent plot, and was well written, it was of a style that 
was disappearing. 

General Lew Wallace, of Crawfordsville, a native of old 
Brookville and a son of Governor David Wallace, came into 
great fame by writing, in the old palace of the Viceroys of 
Spain at Santa Fe, his Ben Hiir, a Tale of the Christ. Later, 
while a diplomat at Constantinople, he wrote The Prince of 
India. Both of these works achieved almost world-wide fame. 

"Joaquin" Miller (Cincinnatus Heine Miller) and John 
Hay, both born and reared in Indiana, achieved high literary 
eminence in this decade, and are sometimes claimed as Indiana 
authors, though their adult life was passed elsewhere and 
their writings do not relate especially to this State. 

Sarah T. Bolton's poems, covering many years of work, 
enjoy a high degree of popularity in Indiana, where she was 
well known. 

Colonel Gilbert A. Pierce, who grew to manhood at old 
Tassinong, in Porter County, wrote his clever novels, Zacha- 
riah the Congressman and A Dangerous Woman. The for- 



SOME INDIA N.^ IVRITERS 99 

mer was the first popular picture of Washington political life. 
Pierce's Dickens Dictionary (a laborious task) may outlast 
the works of Dickens himself. Col. Pierce's political career 
drew him out of Indiana in much of his later life, but he 
always represented the culture and spirit of his home State. 

John Clark Ridpath, of Greencastle, was a voluminous 
writer of history, which in his pleasing style was popularized 
in this country as never before. He was also, on occasion, a 
poet of merit. 

Maurice Thompson, a native of Fairfield, was a successful 
writer of both prose and verse. His best novel is zllice of 
Old Vincennes. 

James Whitcomb Riley, of Greenfield, who came into wide 
fame in the early "eighties," has been without peer as the Indi- 
ana poet; and while much of his verse is in the quaint and 
often touching language of uncultured and imaginary people, 
there is not a little that is pure and elegant English. 

Of refined scholarship which loves the classics for their 
own sake, James A. Wilstach, of LaFayette, gave an illustra- 
tion in his Virgilians and his translation of Vergil's works, 
complete. 

Rose Howe, a scion of the locally historic Bailly family, 
wrote "A Visit to Bois d' Haine." Her sister, Frances R. 
Howe, for decades a contributor to the religious press, wrote 
in 1907 The Story of a French Homestead in the Northivest 
("Baillytown," in Porter County), which possesses both his- 
toric value and popular interest. 

James Baldwin, the "Book-Lover," an Indiana educator, 
having won the hearts of all boys by his Story of Roland and 
Story of Siegfried, devoted himself in the "nineties" to purelv 
literary work, and wrote books especially desirable for school 
libraries. 

Leroy Armstrong depicted the tragedy of politics in the 
fiercely-contested Hoosier State in his story of An Indiana 
Man. This book, which appeared in 1891, was soon 
dramatized. 



loo SOME INDIANA WRITERS 

Of the Indiana writers of the past quarter-century, many 
of whom are still writing, the list is long. George Ade's flip- 
pant humor and light drama, Booth Tarkington's pictures of 
cosmopolitan life, and Winston Churchill's novels of deep 
moral significance, all have the Indiana characteristic of orig- 
inality, though they are imitated by others. 

Of individual books by other writers of Indiana, the fol- 
lowing are named without prejudice to the many others which 
really deserve mention: Oliver H. Smith's Sketches of Early 
Indiana; H. B. Nowland's Prominent Citizens of Indianap- 
olis; A. Y. Moore's Life of Schuyler Colfax; George W. 
Julian's Life of Joshua R. Giddings; J. P. Dunn's Indiana, a 
Redemption from Slavery; Richard M. Thompson's Recol- 
lections of Sixteen Presidents; William Wesley Woollen's 
Biographical and Historical Sketches of Early Indiana; Hol- 
combe and Skinner's Life and Speeches of Thomas A. Hen- 
dricks; Richard G. Boone's Education in Indiana; John W. 
Foster's Twenty Years of Diplomacy ; Hugh McCulloch's 
Men and Measures of Half a Century ; Albert J. Beveridge's 
Russian Advance; David Starr Jordan's Story of Matka; 
George Barr McCutcheon's Beverly of Graustark; Charles 
Major's When Knighthood IVas in Flower; Meredith Nich- 
olson's House of a Thousand Candles; Wilbur Nesbit's 
Gentleman Ragman; George Cary Eggleston's Last of the 
Flatboats; David Graham Phillips's The Plum Tree; Eliza- 
beth Miller's The Yoke; Dr. John M. Coulter's Plant 
Relations; W. D. Foulke's Life of Oliver P. Morton. 

It is a happy thought of the cultured traveler of today to 
purchased souvenir books in situ (in the place where the author 
was born or reared or in which he wrote) . Thus at Crawfords- 
ville or at Brookville one buys, let us say, Ben Hur; at Val- 
paraiso, the Dickens Dictionary; at Greenfield or at Indian- 
apolis, a book of Whitcomb Riley's poems; at LaFayette, The 
Firgilians; at Vevay, Roxy; at Greencastle, a volume of 
Ridpath; at Bloomington, The Story of Matka; at Rushville, 
The Book Lover; at Salem, a volume of John Hay; etc., etc. 



SOME INDIANA WRITERS 



If this practice shall become general, it will insure the 
issuing of new editions when needed, and will add greatly to 
the interest and value of the traveler's collection. 



SCHOOL SONG OF INDIANA 



Words by Hubert M. Skinner. 



Old French Air. — I ive la Com^agnie. 




1. From Lake un - to Riv-er ex-tend her green fields— Fair is the State we love! 

2. Thou land of the he -roes who bat -tied of old, Far in Col - o - nial days- 

3. State that was first in thy loy - al - ty shown, Proved in our Na-tion's woe, 

-b_. , . • ■ r^ z 4 Jk- 







And gold- en the har- vest her in - dus- try yields— Proud is the State we love! 

Of con-quer-ing Clark and his fol-low-ers bold, Wor-thy of end - less praise! 

And first to give wo-man the right to her own, Broad-ly thy hon - ors grow. 

■4 -4!^- 




famed are her states-men in ev - er - y zone. Loved is her Po - et, her 
voi - ces are call- ing, the cen - tu - ries thro', Call-ing from Wa-bash and 
Thy sons and thy daugh-ters, with loft - y ac-claim, Join in the joy and the 

la^n^b— T - [=f= — I * — r — r — r — rff] 




School-master known, Trumpet and lyre, Col-lege and Spire, Tell of the State we love! 
Tip- pe - ca-noe:— "Pa-tri-ots be, Dare to be free!" An-swer-ing voi-ces raise, 
pride of thy name; Age up -on age. His- to - ry's page Bright with thy fame shall grow. 



■ »■♦■♦■■•• 



V V V 
Chorus. „ 



Ei^EiE 



--!»- 



m 



J^^e: 



^ 



^— , 



fair In - di - a 
P , f n • -■f^ 



na, to thee we are true! Bright is thy star in our 

• • fL- — —, — ^ — pn h cv — ^. — c\- 






-I 1 1 H- 



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i-V -H- 1 1 M M ^ 



^=^ 



lLqs=qsi 



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Red,White,and Blue! Here's to our State, the Old Hoosier State-Here's to the State we love! 



-f^m 



-V — I 7— 






LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




Remembered, St. Joseph, thy stor} 

Long as thy waters glide; 
And eloquent ever thy voice, Kankakee, 

History's love and pride! 
vocal no less is the storied Old Trail, 
Path of the Patriots, bidding us hail 
Brady, Maillet! 
Cheer we to-day! 
Here shall their fame abide. 



751 820 1 



